New era for House of Wisdom

Knowledge is going back to its roots.

Centuries after the destruction of the famous Arab House of Wisdom, a modern Knowledge Complex will be set up to offer young Arabs wider access to education.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled a complex that will help reduce unemployment and illiteracy in the region.

The modern Arab ‘House of Wisdom' will be at the heart of the $10 billion education initiative, The Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, which will work towards redeveloping the knowledge roadmap of the Middle East, the Vice-President said on the first day of the Knowledge Conference held in October.

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation is a development foundation with a clear vision and a definite goal. It is to participate in the development of the state of knowledge in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

An Arab Knowledge Report on the status of knowledge in the Arab world will be released by December 2008 by the United Nations Development Programme in partnership with the foundation.

The report will identify challenges, best practices, and propose policy solutions for the effective generation and application of knowledge in the region with a two-fold objective.

First, to find out how knowledge is produced in the region through research institutions, the publishing industry, patent systems, and higher education, and literary and artistic production, and secondly to find out how knowledge is acquired and disseminated by socialisation, education, mass media and translation. Outlined in 15 points, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation will promote education opportunities for women to study online if they have family or practical obligations that do not allow them to continue their higher education, scholarships for young Arab professionals to study for masters degree and a loan programme to help refugees in disaster areas to start small businesses.

“The challenges we face in the Arab and Islamic worlds are challenges of survival, not only of reform and development. Our knowledge level will determine to a large extent our ability to bypass these challenges,'' said Shaikh Mohammad in his inaugural speech to scholars, experts, university presidents and professors from the Arab world.

“Let us take the challenges of unemployment for example, which is about 15 per cent, the highest rate in the world. The challenge facing all of us today is not only finding jobs for the unemployed. It is finding 80 million job opportunities during the next decade.''

A culture of invention, excellence and innovation in the establishments of knowledge and business in both the public and private sectors has to be pursued, he said.

One of the programmes will offer business sponsorships in universities to encourage students to invent, and will help to apply new inventions in practical life. The programme will start new units in the universities that want them, and will link the inventors with funds and business sectors.

“The foundation will be concerned with building the potentials of the leaders and the infrastructure of these establishments, through a number of studied initiatives, programmes and incentives. The foundation will also be concerned with developing the potentials of small and medium size companies to help them stay active, and able to develop and take part in creating new jobs,'' he said.

“Bring your new ideas and projects and you will find that we welcome and support you. Naturally, you will ask about the possibility and method of carrying out all these ambitious projects. I assure all of you that the foundation is able to carry out all these projects,'' said Shaikh Mohammad.

The rise of the House of Wisdom in Islamic history coincides with the Islamic Golden Age. During the era of the house, Arab and Muslim scientists studied astrology, mathematics, agriculture, medicine and philosophy known at the time through translations, which were made available at the house.

Some historians indicate that the idea of building a house for books was imported from Persia. Book palaces were known in the Sassanian culture.

The Persian Empire had known book palaces before the empire was conquered by Muslims.

The library was called the Sassanian Imperial Library. The House of Wisdom, however, was the first of its kind regarding its objectives and its role in developing science.