In Baghdad, long ago…

Once upon a time, a thousand years ago, the ruler of Baghdad built a great library to hold his books. These ancient treasures had come to him by caravan and ship from as far as China, India, Persia, and Africa and from cities as infamous as Damascus, Alexandria, Aleppo, Constantinople, and Tripoli. Caliph al-Ma’mun called his library Bayt ul-Hikmah, or the House of Wisdom. Bayt ul-Hikmah was the heart of intellectual life in Baghdad. Thousands of scholars traveled to Bayt ul-Hikmah from all over the world to study and exchange ideas. They translated newly-discovered manuscripts from the ancient Greek, Syriac, Persian, and Sanskrit languages to Arabic, their common tongue. They studied astronomy and geography, medicine and mathematics, history and philosophy. These were the scholars that invented algebra, discovered the circumference of the earth, and re-introduced Greek thought to Europe, sparking the Renaissance.

It is after this great house and library that we name our humble school.