Baghdad in the Time of Harun Al-Raschid
Schools were opened for the people, and there were colleges of translators to make the best works
of ancient Greece available to Arabic readers. Libraries were founded, and an intense literary activity set in.
An excellent police-system was created at Baghdad, and hospitals and medical schools were founded. A
Jewish traveler of a later date tells us that at Baghdad he found "many large houses, streets, and hostelries
for the sick poor" and "sixty medical warehouses" which were supported by the Caliph. Every poor man
who fell ill was maintained out of royal funds until he recovered. There was also a large asylum for the
insane, in which the patients were examined once a month. Inspectors of the schools were appointed, and
the merchants and traders formed a gild for the suppression of fraud. And in the course of time these
schools, libraries, hospitals and other institutions were expanded to the other cities of the kingdom."Ñfrom
Joseph McCabe, Morals in the Arab-Persian Civilization, vol. six of his History of Morals, Big Blue Book
#488, published by E. Haldeman-Julius, Girard, Kansas
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