Baghdad and the spread of ideas

The caliphs paid scholars to come to the House of Wisdom to translate Greek, Persian and Indian texts into Arabic. They used these texts to create new knowledge that was spread throughout the Islamic world and even further afield. Scholars translated the works of Greek and Roman doctors like Galen, saving and spreading this medical knowledge. Scientists and scholars in Baghdad made many discoveries such as how lenses and the human eye work and making compasses. Geometrically patterned art looking like flowers and plants spread across the Muslim world from Baghdad.