20 Incredible Works of Art that are Lost Forever

1. The greatest library in the world, the House of Wisdom, was utterly destroyed following the Mongol sack of Baghdad

Often cited as both the beginning and end of the Islamic Golden Age, the House of Wisdom, as well as the host city of Baghdad, was founded following the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate over the Umayyad and the rise of al-Mansur in 762 CE. Instituted either as a private library for the collections of the caliph, or alternatively as a public academy as it later would become, the House of Wisdom would occupy a position at the center of the Translation Movement: a period in which classical works, such as that of Galen and Hippocrates, were en masse converted and consumed by Islamic scholars as part of one the greatest moments of scientific learning in history.

Becoming perhaps the foremost center of education in the known world, by the latter half of the ninth century it is thought the House of Wisdom comprised the greatest collection of books anywhere on Earth. Fluctuating in importance and support depending upon the whims of successive caliphs, the invaluable library came to an abrupt conclusion with the Siege of Baghdad in 1258. Although Nasir al-Din al-Tusi rescued an estimated 400,000 manuscripts before the attack, following the fall of the city the House of Wisdom was utterly destroyed, with its remaining books thrown into the Tigris River “in such quantities that the river ran black with the ink”.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“The Quest for Cardenio: Shakespeare, Fletcher, Cervantes, and the Lost Play”, David Carnegie and Gary Taylor, Oxford University Press (2012)

“The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced”, Stephanie Dalley, Oxford University Press (2013)

“The Hanging Gardens of Babylon”, Irving Finkel, in “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”, Peter Clayton and Martin Price, Routledge (1994)

“East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History”, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Anne Walthall, and James B. Palais, Houghton Mifflin Company (2006)

“Art historians say they have found evidence of hidden Leonardo da Vinci”, Tom Kington, The Guardian (March 12, 2012)

“A High-Tech Hunt for Lost Art”, John Tierney, The New York Times (October 5, 2009)

“The Book of Lost Books”, Stuart Kelly, Random House (2006)

“Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology”, William Smith, Little, Brown, and Company (1849)

“World Famous Treasures Lost and Found”, Vikas Khatri, Pustak Mahal Publishing (2013)

“A Brief History of the Amber Room”, Jess Blumberg, The Smithsonian Institution (July 31, 2007)

“Kaempfer’s Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed”, Beatrice Bodart-Bailey, University of Hawaii Press (1999)