In The House of Wisdom, Florence Parry Heide and Judith Heide Gilliland weave an historic, yet timeless tale of 9th century Baghdad. A young boy, Ishaq (Arabic for Isaac), lives with his scholar father in the House of Wisdom, a vast library where manuscripts from all around the known world have been gathered and preserved. Ishaq grows up in this center of learning, knowing how prized these ancient books are--the caliph gives his father a manuscript's weight in gold for translating it!--but not fully grasping the importance of the legacy they represent, until the Caliph presents him with a challenge.
Only after he leads an expedition himself in search of books, "to Cordova and Samarkand, to India and China," does he understand.
"The House of Wisdom," a large, vibrantly illustrated book aimed at young readers, brings to life the legacy of the Arab World in its period of enlightenment 1,000 years ago. Through historically-based story-telling, it brings a sense of adventure into the realm of knowledge and its acquisition.
The book's opening words set the tone for a brief, exciting journey to an era still admired for its elevation of learning: "From time to time, as the world turns, something different happens, something mysterious and astonishing. Ideas brush against one another and sparks fly! It can happen anywhere, anytime."
Thus begins the true story of Ishaq, a young ninth-century Baghdad resident who lives in the great library known as bayt al-hikmah, the House of Wisdom - "the very center of the brightening" - where scholars preserved the great intellectual contributions of the ancient world. Ishaq's father is the master translator Hunayn, whom the Caliph pays in gold equal to the weight of each manuscript.
As he matures in this historic period of enlightenment, Ishaq studies ancient Greek as well as Arabic, and one day is chosen to lead a book-gathering expedition that takes him to Cordova and to China. He returns to Baghdad three years later, delivering thousands of manuscripts. Fueled by his passion for knowledge, Ishaq ultimately becomes the world's greatest translator of Aristotle.
The book is historically informative, written in lyrical prose by Florence Parry Heide, the author of more than 100 books for children, and her co-author and daughter, Judith Heide Gilliland, who has a master's degree in Near Eastern languages and literature and lived in the Middle East for five years.
Visually, "The House of Wisdom" is breathtaking, filled with shimmering lights, handsome faces, and swirling, kinetic tableaux. Inspired by richly patterned Islamic art, the illustrations by Mary Grand Pré use framed boxes and borders reminiscent of old Islamic books, and the figures are alive with movement and texture, depth and light.
A brief historical and geographical review rounds out the narrative, stressing the contributions of the scholars of "The House of Wisdom" who "introduced Greek thought to Europe, sparking the Renaissance," and carried "the torch of civilization for the rest of the world."
