I recall that when I was in high school that I read a text -which sounds more like a legend- about an Arabic Sultan/Caliph who on a trip trough his empire passed by an injured (wild) animal (don't recall what it was maybe a Lion?) and he decided to care about it in his Palace and later he established the first Zoo. I assume that the Capital was either Damascus or Baghdad, but I'm sure that that happened during either the Omayyad or maybe early Abbasid Dynasty!
History tells us that there definitely have been Zoos long before, but that is what I read in that text.
I would like to know whom that Sultan/Caliph was and whether this story has some back up and if so to what extend we might call this a Zoo?