Every household was plentifully supplied with water at all seasons by the numerous aqueducts which intersected the town; and the streets, gardens and parks were regularly swept and watered, and no refuse was allowed to remain within the walls. An immense square in front of the imperial palace was used for reviews, military inspections, tournaments and races; at night the square and the streets were lighted by lamps. There was also a vast open space where the troops whose barracks lay on the left bank of the river were paraded daily. The long wide estrades at the different gates of the city were used by the citizens for gossip and recreation or for watching the flow of travelers and country folk into the capital. The different nationalities in the capital had each a head officer to represent their interests with the government, and to whom the stranger could appeal for counsel or help. Bagdad was a veritable City of Palaces, not made of stucco and mortar, but of marble. The buildings were usually of several stories. The palaces and mansions were lavishly gilded and decorated, and hung with beautiful tapestry ... The mosques of the city were at once vast in size and remarkably beautiful. There were also in Bagdad numerous colleges of learning, hospitals, infirmaries for both sexes, and lunatic asylums.
from Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources
Abbasid Medicine (1020)
This excerpt from Avicenna's Canon of Medicine is the first recorded explanation relating diagnosis and treatment.
"On Medicine" by Avicenna
Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health. The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes. Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health. And because health and sickness and their causes are sometimes manifest, and sometimes hidden and not to be comprehended except by the study of symptoms, we must also study the symptoms of health and disease. Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.
from The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East
Abbasid Philosophy (1194)
Averroes was a renowned Spanish-Arab philosopher who studied Aristotle, medicine, and law. He lived in Moorish Spain, was exiled for his writings on religion in 1195, and died in 1199. This excerpt gives selected examples of his beliefs.
"Philosophic Thoughts" by Averroes
Just as a man inured to poison can take it with impunity, so a man used to [legends] from childhood can accept the most unbelievable opinions. Therefore the opinions of the masses are only formed through habit. The people