Even as Europe slumbered through the Dark Ages, the Islamic world was enjoying a climate of unprecedented intellectual growth and initiative. At the heart of this Oriental Renaissance was the great city of Baghdad, within which lay the Bayt al-Hikma: the House of Wisdom. Formed during the Abbasid Caliphate, this enlightened institution was home to a vast and ever-growing collection of manuscripts from Greece, India and Persia, many of which had been lost to civilization until that time.

Across the flourishing Empire, Muslim intellectuals were mustered to apply their formidable mental faculties to this mine of information and assimilate it into Islamic learning.

Thus began the gigantic task of translating into Arabic the collective wisdom of the Ancient world.