Beit El Hekma or The House of Wisdom was a major intellectual institution during the Islamic Golden Age. It was founded by Caliph Harun al-Rashid as a small library and then was formally established by his son Al-Ma’mun.
Based in Baghdad, it was a meeting point for many well-known scholars with Muslim, Christian, and Jewish backgrounds to share information, ideas, and culture. Beside translating books into Arabic and preserving them, scholars of the House of Wisdom made many remarkable original contributions to diverse fields. By the middle of the ninth century, the House of Wisdom had the largest selection of books in the world.
To revive this vision of diversity, Heliopolis University produces a series of performances celebrating the Arabic cultural heritage, especially poetry. The main goal is to preserve and keep alive the Arabic poetry – one of the greatest in the world and make Arabic poets’ verses everlasting through marking their anniversaries and preparing poetic plays and poetry salons.