late 8th century or as a private collection of the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to house rare books and collections in the Arabic language. During the reign of the seventh Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun , it was turned into a public academy and a library.

It was destroyed in 1258 during the Mongol siege of Baghdad. The primary sources behind the House of Wisdom narrative date between the late eighth century and the