10. The Academy of Gundeshapur was one of the most important libraries in the Middle East, with its medical library a wonder of the ancient world.
According to some accounts, Gundeshapur was founded by Shapur I – also known as Shapur the Great – the ruler of the Sassanid Empire. He decided to create a small city on this site, located in the Khuzestan province of the Persian Empire, after he defeated a Roman army led by the Emperor Valerian here in the 3rd century. Shapur was determined to transform his new city into a major seat of knowledge. Experts were brought in, including doctors and scientists from Greece. It was they who staffed the teaching hospital, the first facility of its kind anywhere in the world.
Not much is known about the library at Gundeshapur. What is known is that its collections were vast, with numerous works on engineering, medicine, philosophy and astronomy in particular. Over time, refugees from across Asia as well as Europe came to settle in the city. The rulers of the Sassanid Empire employed them to translate works from their own languages into Persian. When the Sassanid dynasty fell to Muslim Arab forces in 683, the new rulers of the city kept Gundeshapur as a cradle of learning, though within two centuries, Baghdad had become the intellectual capital of the region.