Islamic Golden Age

Islamic Golden Age
	The Tabula Rogeriana (1154) by al-Idrisi, one of the most advanced medieval world maps.
Overview
Era	Middle Ages
Dates	c. 8th century – c. 14th century
Core regions	West Asia, North Africa, Al-Andalus, Central Asia, East Africa
Milestones
Key centers	Baghdad (House of Wisdom), Bukhara, Cairo, Córdoba, Damascus, Samarkand, Fez
Movements	Arabic and Latin translation movements, Empiricism, Islamic philosophy
Intellectual achievements
Mathematics	Algebra, spherical trigonometry, Arabic numerals
Medicine	The Canon of Medicine, discovery of pulmonary circulation, Ophthalmology
Astronomy	Astrolabe refinement, Maragheh observatory
Physics	Book of Optics, Hydrostatics
End
Key factors	Siege of Baghdad (1258), Reconquista, economic shifts, Black Death
	Part of a series on the History of Islam

Some figures of the Islamic Golden Age

Al-Khwarizmi

Al-Biruni

The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, dated from the 8th century CE to the 14th century. The period is understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809), with the establishment of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, one of the world's largest cities at the time. The institution attracted scholars from across the Muslim world to translate the classical knowledge of the known world into Arabic and later into Persian as well. In addition to Baghdad, the intellectual and cultural activity also flourished in other urban centers of the medieval Islamic world, including Cairo, and Umayyad Córdoba (capital of Al-Andalus), as well as Damascus, Nishapur, Samarkand, Ghazni, Kairouan, and Fez, and in later centuries, Nasrid Granada.

The period is said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate following the Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258. Select scholars extend the end of the golden age to around 1350, thereby including the Timurid Renaissance. Others extend it to the 15th century, including the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, whose court remained an important centre of scholarship, culture and literature, or even to the 16th century, incorporating the rise of the Islamic Gunpowder Empires.