The interest of the caliphs in science and scholars
The caliphs cared about science and scholars, and their motto was ask for knowledge even in China, and their pioneer in all of this was the hadith of the Prophet, which says that wisdom is lost by the believer, he takes it from whoever hears it and does not care from which vessel it came out, and his saying that seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim, male and female as well.
That is why the Muslims cared at the beginning of the matter in the sciences of religion, then they turned their attention after that to transferring the sciences and the previous nations by translating them into Arabic, the translator weighed what he translated in gold.
translation movement
The caliphs used to impose knowledge on their children, brothers, male slaves, and female servants, and they used to educate and teach female slave girls, and memorize them the Qur’an, poetry, and news, and teach them grammar, prosody, and singing, and then guide them.
Zubaydah, the mother of al-Amin, the famuse Abbasid caliph, had 100 maidservants who memorized the Qur’an, and from her palace the sound could be heared a sound like of bees from recitation.
Even stranger than that is their spending of money on scholars, in addition to the authors, the great King Sharaf al-Din Isa al-Ayyubi, the ruler of Damascus, and he was one of the patrons of literature.
He stipulated that everyone who memorized al-Mufaddal’s book by al-Zamakhshari should pay 100 dinars, so a large group would memorize it.
The interest of the caliphs in the education of their children
Among the evidences of their reverence for knowledge is that they used to encourage their children to receive it and memorize poetry and news, they appointed teachers for them from among the elite of contemporary scholars.
Al-Mansur included al-Sharfi Ibn al-Khattabi with his son al-Mahdi and recommended him to teach him the news of the Arabs and honorable manners and read poetry and al-Rashid entrusted the teaching of his trustworthy son to al-Ahmar Al nahawy (the grammarian) and then to al-Kisa’I, al-Ma’mun entrusted the discipline of his son to the Yazidi, Sibawayh and others.
And Al-Rasheed has a will, it is said that he recommended it to Al-Ahmar when he was entrusted with disciplining Al-Amin, according to the understanding of all the fathers.
The caliph al-Ma'mun entrusted al-Farra' with
teaching his two sons grammar, and it was agreed that al-Farra' wanted to meet
his needs one day, so he turned to his shoes to present them to him, so they
quarreled over which one to offer, then it was agreed on who would give each of
them one.
When the caliph was informed of that, al-Ma'mun summoned him, and when he entered upon him, al-Ma'mun said, "Who is the dearest of people?" He said, "I do not know anyone dearer than the Commander of the Faithful." He said, "But who, when he rises, the dearest of people fight with." He said, "I do not know anyone who is dearer than the Commander of the Faithful." He said, "Rather, who, when he got up, fights over presenting his shoes to the Crown Prince of the Muslims until each one of them is satisfied to submit to him an individual." He said, "O Commander of the Faithful, I have I wanted to prevent them from doing so, but I was afraid that I would push them away from a deed they had already done, or break their souls from an honorable thing they were keen on.
The caliph al-Mutawakkil entrusted the education of his children to Ibn al-Sakit, and Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz learned literature and Arabic from al-Mubarrad, Thalab and Ahmad ibn Sa'id al-Dimashqi.
And the caliph al-Ma'mun used to incite people to read books and terrify them in learning them, He used to meet with scholars and wise men, enjoy their debates, and enjoy discussing them.
The caliph al-Ma'mun reconciled with the king of the Romans to take what they had of the books of the ancients, and he sent his delegation from among the trustworthy Muslims to copy what the king of the Romans thought to extract from the book, thus, Al-Mamun gathered a great treasury of books, which he later called the House of Wisdom.
Al-Mamoon was the most knowledgeable of the successors of the Abbasids, he was knowledgeable in the sciences of language, law and philosophy, and in this reason he resembled al-Hakam Ibn al-Nasir al-Umayyad in Andalusia, who died in 366 AH.
As for Fatimid Caliphate Al-Hakim, he was a lover of science, and for this he established the House of Wisdom in which he collected many books, he was also a lover of astronomy, for this he established an observatory to observe the stars.
From all of this, we see that the Holy Qur’an calls for knowledge, and likewise the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, calls for knowledge in his speech, as well as the caliphs or princes who encouraged science and scholars in this healthy environment that loves science and respects scholars, and Abu Bakr Al-Razi pioneered the science of medicine and Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi Al-Andalusi pioneered the science of surgery and Ibn Al-Haytham in Egypt after the science of light and others.
