Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria)
The 'Royal Library of Alexandria' in Alexandria,
Egypt, was once the largest library in the world. It is generally
thought to have been founded at the beginning of the 3rd century
BC, during the reign of Ptolemy II of Egypt. It was likely
created after his father had built what would become the first
part of the Library complex, the temple of the Muses the
Museion (from which the modern English word museum is derived).
It has been reasonably established that the Library,
or parts of the collection, were destroyed by fire on a number
of occasions (library fires were common and replacement of
handwritten manuscripts was very difficult, expensive and
time-consuming). To this day the details of the destruction
(or destructions) remain a lively source of controversy. The
Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated in 2003 near the site
of the old Library.
Destruction of the Library
Ancient and modern sources identify four possible
occasions for the destruction of the Library:
1. Caesar's conquest 48 BC;
2. The attack of Aurelian in the 3rd century;
3. The decree of Theophilus in 391;
4. The Muslim conquest in 642 or thereafter.
Each of these has been viewed with suspicion by other
scholars as an effort to place the blame on particular actors.
Moreover, each of these events is historically problematic.
In the first case, there is clear evidence that the Library
was not in fact destroyed at that time. The third episode
has had some strong supporters, including Edward Gibbon, but
still many dispute this. The fourth episode was not documented
by any contemporary source, although some maintain that the
final destruction of the Library took place at this time.
Caesar's conquest 48 BC
Plutarch's Lives, written at the end of the first
or beginning of the second century, describes a battle in
which Caesar was forced to burn his own ships, which in turn
set fire to the docks and then the Library, destroying it.
This would have occurred in 48 BC, during the fighting between
Caesar and Ptolemy XIII; however, there is no corroborating
evidence that the Library was in fact destroyed at this time.
Only 25 years later Strabo saw the Library and worked in it.
Thus, any damage sustained by this battle was probably slight.
Attack of Aurelian, 3rd century
The Library seems to have been maintained and continued
in existence until its contents were largely lost during the
taking of the city by the Emperor Aurelian (270275), who was
suppressing a revolt by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. The smaller
library located at the Serapeum survived, but part of its contents
may have been taken to Constantinople to adorn the new capital
in the course of the 4th century. However, Ammianus Marcellinus,
writing around 378 AD seems to speak of the library in the Serapeum
temple as a thing of the past, and he states that many of the
Serapeum library's volumes were burnt in when Caesar sacked
Alexandria. As he says in Book 22.16.12-13:
"Besides this there are many lofty temples, and
especially one to Serapis, which, although no words can adequately
describe it, we may yet say, from its splendid halls supported
by pillars, and its beautiful statues and other embellishments,
is so superbly decorated, that next to the Capitol, of which
the ever-venerable Rome boasts, the whole world has nothing
worthier of admiration.In it were libraries of inestimable value;
and the concurrent testimony of ancient records affirm that
70,000 volumes, which had been collected by the anxious care
of the Ptolemies, were burnt in the Alexandrian war when the
city was sacked in the time of Caesar the Dictator."
5th century scroll which illustrates the destruction
of the Serapeum by TheophilusWhile Ammianus Marcellinus may
be simply reiterating Plutarch's tradition about Caesar's destruction
of the library, it is possible that his statement reflects his
own empirical knowledge that the Serapeum library collection
had either been seriously depleted or was no longer in existence
in his own day.
Decree of Theophilus in 391
In 391, Emperor Theodosius I ordered the destruction
of all pagan temples, and Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria
complied with this request. Socrates Scholasticus provides the
following account of the destruction of the temples in Alexandria
in the fifth book of his Historia Ecclesiastica, written around
440:
At the solicitation of Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria,
the Emperor issued an order at this time for the demolition
of the heathen temples in that city; commanding also that it
should be put in execution under the direction of Theophilus.
Seizing this opportunity, Theophilus exerted himself to the
utmost to expose the pagan mysteries to contempt. And to begin
with, he caused the Mithreum to be cleaned out, and exhibited
to public view the tokens of its bloody mysteries. Then he destroyed
the Serapeum, and the bloody rites of the Mithreum he publicly
caricatured; the Serapeum also he showed full of extravagant
superstitions, and he had the phalli of Priapus carried through
the midst of the forum. Thus this disturbance having been terminated,
the governor of Alexandria, and the commander-in-chief of the
troops in Egypt, assisted Theophilus in demolishing the heathen
temples.
The Serapeum once housed part of the Library, but it
is not known how many, if any, books were contained in it at
the time of destruction. Notably,the passage by Socrates Scholasticus,
unlike that of Ammianus Marcellinus, makes no clear reference
to a library or library contents being destroyed, only to religious
objects being destroyed. Paulus Orosius admitted in the sixth
book of his History against the pagans: "Today there exist in
temples book chests which we ourselves have seen, and, when
these temples were plundered, these, we are told, were emptied
by our own men in our time, which, indeed, is a true statement."
As for the Museum, Mostafa El-Abbadi writes in Life
and Fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria (Paris 1992):
The Mouseion, being at the same time a 'shrine
of the Muses', enjoyed a degree of sanctity as long as other
pagan temples remained unmolested. Synesius of Cyrene, who studied
under Hypatia at the end of the fourth century, saw the Mouseion
and described the images of the philosophers in it. We have
no later reference to its existence in the fifth century. As
Theon, the distinguished mathematician and father of Hypatia,
herself a renowned scholar, was the last recorded scholar-member
(c. 380), it is likely that the Mouseion did not long survive
the promulgation of Theodosius' decree in 391 to destroy all
pagan temples in the City.
There is also a suggestion that the Serapeum may have
survived until 415. Hypatia is generally considered to be the
last scholar/librarian and she was killed by a mob in 415. Carl
Sagan strongly alleges in his book and series Cosmos that the
Serapeum may have been destroyed during the same incident(or
soon thereafter).
Muslim conquest in 642
The tale of the Muslim destruction of the Library comes
from several Alexandrian historians, writing several hundred
years later. The legend has it that the caliph Umar posed to
commander Amr bin al 'Ass the following dilemma: "Touching the
books you mention, if what is written in them agrees with the
Book of God, they are not required; if it disagrees, they are
not desired. Destroy them therefore." The tale goes on to say
that the books fueled the city's bath-houses for the next six
months. Since the 18th century, this story has been universally
regarded as a fiction. Normally it has been put down to Christian
crusader propaganda, but recently some historians, including
Bernard Lewis, have argued that although the tale is certainly
false, its true origin may be more complex.
Although the actual circumstances and timing of the
physical destruction of the Library remains uncertain, it is
however clear that by the 8th century, the Library was no longer
a significant institution and had ceased to function in any
important capacity. Alexandria was not a major research center
for the Islamic world. Moreover, if the collection had survived
to the early 700s, it would very likely have been incorporated
into the library of the Al-Azhar mosque (and later university)
in Cairo. This collection has come down to the present intact,
but does not include Alexandrine texts.
Check out the new library's website:
http://www.bibalex.org/English/index.aspx
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