High Middle Ages · Middle East · Culture

1009

Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim founds Dar al-Ilm in Cairo

1009

The eccentric Fatimid caliph established a House of Knowledge in Cairo, stocking it with thousands of volumes on astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and grammar, and providing ink, pens, and paper free to all scholars. Despite al-Hakim's erratic persecutions elsewhere, the Dar al-Ilm became one of the great libraries of the medieval Islamic world, rivaling Baghdad's faded memory.

More from 1009 High Middle Ages

In context

Also in 1009 (3 other events on record)

Fatimid caliph orders Holy Sepulchre destroyed · Middle East · Religion
Ly Cong Uan founds the Ly dynasty in Vietnam · Southeast Asia · Politics
Sack of Cordoba begins · Europe · War

Before and after in Middle East

Before: 1005: Earthquake devastates parts of Persia
After: 1010: Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh

Before and after in Culture

Before: 1008: Murasaki Shikibu's diary at court
After: 1010: Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh

Era

High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.