Libraries In Early Islamic History

[TheAuthenticBase]

In the middle of the first century of the Hijrah, we find a man called 'Abdul-Hakam Bin 'Amr Al-Jumahee, who established a public library which contained Kurraasaat (books) on various subjects... People were free to use the library for reading or for amusement. [Aghaanee, 4/253]

At the same time there was the library of Ibn Abee Lailaa, which contained only the Holy Quraan and people gathered there for recitation. [Sa'd, 6/75]

There is another library mntioned in the ossession of Khaalid Bin Yazeed Bin Mu'aawiyah, but it is not the earliest record of anything like a public libraryy as was supposed by Krenkow, because the libraries of 'Abdul-Hakam and Ibn Abee Lailaa most probably existed at an earlier date than this library.

There may have been some other libraries which are unknown to us because this information is scattered for and wide, and there is no special chapter on early libraries in the sources available.

[Studies In Early Hadeeth Literature, By M. M. Al-Azami, p. 16-17]

 

[Mabsoot]

assalamu alaykum,

A famous library was in Baghdad and known as "bayt al hikma" - house of wisdom. It was unrivalled in the whole world.

"During the reign of al-Ma'mun, observatories were set up, and the House was an unrivaled center for the study of humanities and for science in medieval Islam, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine, alchemy and chemistry, zoology andgeography and cartography. Drawing on Indian, Greek, and Persian texts, the scholars accumulated a great collection of world knowledge, and built on it through their own discoveries. By the middle of the ninth century, the House of Wisdom was the largest repository of books in the world" - Wikipedia