From the 700s to the 1200s, Baghdad was an Intellectual Center unrivaled in the world. It's House of Wisdom studied mathematics, astronomy, medicine, alchemy and chemistry, zoology, and geography.
The smallest US state, Rhode Island (1,212 square miles), has a larger population than the largest US state, Alaska (663,300 square miles), with 1.055 million residents vs. 736,732.