The school consisted of calligraphers, illustrators, transcribers and translators, who collaborated to produce illuminated manuscripts derived from non-Arabic sources.
The Abbasid artist, Yahya Al-Wasiti, who probably lived in Baghdad in the late Abassid era (12th to 13th-centuries), was one of the pre-eminent exponents of the Baghdad school.
The Greek materia medica, in particular herbals and bestiaries, which described the characteristics and medicinal uses of various plants and animals found in the Mediterranean world, were among the books transcribed.