hi, i’m just watching the Empires documentaries on Islam (i’ve got the greece, rome, egypt and napoleon ones as well) and I’m v impressed with the stuff about the baghdad house of wisdom scholars who went hunting for and preserving greek and other works. i really don’t know about islamic scholars of this period, a renaissance hundreds of years before the non-islamic one… does anyone know any good books about this? thanks, chad. 
You might want to try:
“Greek Thought, Arab Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society”
Hope this helps.
Rich
Talking about Baghdad’s preservation of things, (and I don’t want a long pointless conversation sprout from this) I’d like to know, if any one here can help me, how much information and ancient objects were lost during the invasion to Irak. I heard that some museums were looted, but don’t know if it’s true.
hi Rich, thanks v much for the ref, I’ll check it out. Yeah I agree Yhevhe, I didn’t mean to start a topic about modern baghdad.
I know you didn’t, but it can happen So I wanted to advice as I refer to the invasion in my post.