Who burned the Alexandria Library?
The Old Library of Alexandria, known as the Royal Library of Alexandria or the Great Library, is the largest library built by Ptolemy I. It was established by Alexander the Great twenty-three centuries ago. It is also said that it was established by Ptolemy II in the early third century BC, in the year (285 – 247). bc
Demetrius of Valery the Greek, who was working as an advisor to Ptolemy I, collected the nucleus of the Library of Alexandria while he was in Greece. There is a difference in the year in which it was established. Some say it was established in the year 330 BC, and some say it was established in 288 BC.
The ancient Library of Alexandria (Publica de Li Alexandrina) is because it is the oldest public governmental library in the ancient world, not because it is the first of the world’s Airworld’s whale is the books and sciences of the Pharaonic and Greek civilizations, in which the scientific mixture and intellectual, the cultural encounter with the sciences of the East and the West took place. It was also in the stronghold of science and the stronghold of papyrus and writing tools in Egypt, where it collected what was in the libraries of the Egyptian temples and the whale of knowledge on and last, but not least, its scholars were liberated from the taboo of politics, religion, gender, race and discrimination. Except for his knowledge, not his religion or his nationality.
In 48 BC, Julius Caesar burned 101 ships on the shore of the Mediterranean in front of the Library of Alexandria after Ptolemy the Younger, Cleopatra’s Cleopatra’ssieged him after he felt that Julius Caesar was supporting Cleopatra against him. Some historians have it destroyed. While history also mentions that the library was severely damaged in 391 AD when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I ordered its destruction.
Some historians put forward another theory that despite the fire of Theodosius I, the library survived until the year 640 AD when some historians say that it was destroyed during the reign of Amr ibn al-Aas in Egypt by order Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab. While other historians deny any connection to Muslims and Amr ibn al-Aas in the library fire and describe this accusation as a myth and legend, where they say that Amr ibn al-Aas entered Alexandria in the year 642 AD at a time when the Library of Alexandria did not exist until he burned it, as they say, that it was proven that the Library of Alexandria was burned. From the last of them during the time of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in 48 BC. “It was not “mentioned in the books of the ancients such as Al-Ya’qubi, Al-Ya’qubiri, Ibn Abd Al-Hakam, Al-Tabari and Al-Kindi, nor in the history of those who came after them and took from them such as Al-Maqrizi and Abu Al-Mahasin. , Al-Suyuti and others after the Arabs entered Alexandria on December 22, 640 AD and the city walls were destroyed.
Amr ibn al-Aas was acquainted with an old Christian theologian called John Philoponus (a student of the Alexandrian philosopher Ammonius, known to the Arabs as Yahya al-Nahwi, and his writings contributed greatly to the transmission of Greek culture to the Arabs). After many religious debates between John and Amr regarding the Trinity, monotheism, and the divinity of Christ, John asked Amr to preserve the books in the Library of Alexandria because, according to John, “other than “he storehouses, palaces, and gardens of the city, these books are of no use to Amr or his men.” At that ti”e, Amr was surprised and asked about the origin and usefulness of those books. John told him the story of the Library of Alexandria since its founding by Ptolemy II. But Amr Ibn Al-Aas replied that he could not act without taking the advice of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab. Ibn al-Aas wrote a letter to Ibn al-Khattab, consulting him in the library and books. While John and Amr were waiting for a reply, the latter authorized John to visit the library, accompanied by his student, the Jewish physician Philaretes (the author of a medical book on the pulse, the book wrongly attributed to John Philoponus).
A few days later, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab’sAl-Khattab’sme, which Amr Ibn Al-Aas read and translated to the ears of both John and Philarettes. In it, there is what it means: “…As for t” e-books that I mentioned, if they contain what agrees with the Book of God, then the Book of God is rich in them, and if they contain what is in them. It goes against the Book of God, so we don’t need dianthus; Amr “bn al-Aas ordered the distribution of books to the baths of Alexandria to be used in kindling the fires that keep the baths warm. The Muslim historian al-Qifti mentions in his book The Traditions of the Wise Men that the burning of these books lasted for nearly six months and that the only books that survived the fire were some of the books of the Greek philosopher Aristotle and some of the writings of Euclid the Mathematician and Ptolemy the geographer.
The narration of the Arabs burning the books of the Serapeum Library, as mentioned by Al-Qifti, is also mentioned in the books of Al-Moawa’ah Al-Moawa’ahbar iAl-I’tibarng the plans and effects of the Sheikh of Egyptian historians Taqi Al-Din by Maqrizi, the index by Ibn Al-Nadim, and the history of Islamic urbanization by Georgy Zaidan. Ibn Khaldun also supports in his introduction to the novel of the Arabs burning of the Library of Alexandria given the behaviour of the Arabs in the same era. An example of that behaviour is Saad bin Abi Waqqas throwing the books of the Persians into water and fire, based on the order of Omar bin Al-Khattab, who sent Ibn Abi Waqqas saying, “If there is”no guidance in it, then God has guided us with guidance from Him, and if it is misguidance, then God has sufficed us.”
Supporting”References Burning the Library of Alexandria Some people trace the burning of the Library of Alexandria to Julius Caesar (100-44 BC). One of the most important pieces of evidence for this claim is what Julius Caesar himself wrote in his book Alexandrian War that the Yaran, which his soldiers set on fire to burn the Egyptian fleet in the port of Alexandria, extended to devour a warehouse full of papyrus located close to the port. However, from the geographical study of the location of the Library of Alexandria in the Bruchion district, far from the port, it is clear that this storehouse is impossible to be the library. The suspicion that Julius Caesar burned the Library of Alexandria is easy to refute by reading the book Geography of the historian Strabo, who visited Alexandria around the year 25 BC, which derives its scientific material from the historical sources present in the Library of Alexandria at that time. In addition, Cicero, the most famous historian of the Roman Empire, known for his fierce hostility to Julius Caesar, never mentioned the burning of the Library of Alexandria by Julius Caesar in his famous book Philippics, which is further evidence of Julius Caesar’s in caesar’s that accusation. Despite this, some historians agree that Julius Caesar was the one who burned the Library of Alexandria. One of these historians is Plutarch in his book Life of Caesar, which he wrote at the end of the first century AD, in which he mentioned that the Library of Alexandria had been burned by the fire started by Julius Caesar to destroy the Egyptian fleet stationed in the port of Alexandria. In the second century AD, in his book Attic Nights, the Roman historian Aulus Gellius states that the Royal Library of Alexandria was accidentally burned when some Roman soldiers belonging to Julius Caesar set some fires. In the fourth century, the pagan historians Ammianus Marcellinus and Christian Orosius agreed that the Library of Alexandria had been burned by mistake because of the fire started by Julius Caesar.
But mostly here, these historians have confused the two Greek words bibliotheca, a group of books, and bibliotheca, a library. Accordingly, they thought that what was previously written about burning some books near the port and in some storehouses was burning the famous Library of Alexandria. Based on this, and given what was written by the aforementioned Roman historians, it is likely that the Royal Alexandrian Library was burned after Strabo visited the city around 25 BC. But before the beginning of the second century AD otherwise, these historians would not have mentioned the incident of burning it and wrongly ascribing it to Julius Caesar. The result is that the library was mostly destroyed by someone other than Julius Caesar. Still, the generations following the accident used to associate the fire that occurred in Alexandria during Julius Caesar’s presence there wiCaesar’surning of the library.
But it is known that the Royal Library of Alexandria, or the Museum, as it was called, contained the origins of many of the mothers of books in the world, was not the only library located in Alexandria. Still, there were at least two other libraries: the library of the Serapeum temple and the library of the Cesarion temple. The continuation of the intellectual and scientific life in Alexandria after the destruction of the royal library and the prosperity of the city as a centre of science and literature in the world between the first century AD and the sixth century AD depended on the existence of these two libraries and the books and references they contained. Historically, the Royal Library was a private library for the royal family, scholars, and researchers, while the Serapeum and Cesarium were two public libraries open to the general public. The royal library is credited to Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Later, it gained great importance and size, and thus it became necessary to create an annexe near it. It is believed that the annexe or the “nascent library” was established by o”der of Ptolemy “II Evergetes, as this annexe was established on the plateau of the Rakotis neighbourhood (known today as the Karmouz neighbourhood), in a place in Alexandria far from the seashore in an ancient temple built by the early Ptolemies for the god Serapis and called the Serapeum. This library was able to withstand and cross the centuries, gaining, like its predecessor, great fame and importance around the world.
Later, the Roman emperors preserved the library and upgraded its equipment with a central heating system by extending the walls to dry dry dry the air inside the underground storerooms. When the book merchants learned that there was a market for books in Alexandria, they rushed to Egypt to sell the rarest books and the most valuable documents of the Ptolemies. Also, personal libraries were a fertile field for feeding the Library of Alexandria with large collections, as was the case for the Library of Aristotle and the Library of Theophrastus.
One of the ways to obtain books is to inspect the cargo of ships docked in the port of Alexandria and confiscate any books on board, copies of which are only given to their owners. The assets are kept in the library with any compensation requested if there are any problems in this procedure. Through these methods, many books included the entire written Greek intellectual production. The main library may have narrowed with the books it collected, which necessitated the establishment of a subsidiary library for it in the Serapeum temple.
There are no specific figures for the size of the collections or the number of books in the two libraries. The Greek book gave different numbers for the number of books (rolls) held in the library, and we must know that a single roll may include many works, and a single book may fall into many rolls. The numbers indicate that the main library of the museum had 400,000 rolls are unsorted, 90,000 rolls, and 800 arranged and sorted. These numbers record what the groups were in Callimachus, who died between 235 and 240 BC. The documents confirm that the maximum number reached by the collection is 700,000 volumes until the first century BC, that is, before the partial fire that might have occurred with the beating of “Julius Caesar” of Alexandria.
Unfortunately, we do not have” confirmed numbers” after that date and after Cleopatra was compensated, as was said in the Pergamum Library after it fell into the hands of Antonio in 41 BC, which was estimated at 200,000 scrolls, and was the pride of the following kings. Also, it isn’t easy to know the objective trends of the library’s history’s as we did not even reach the catalogue library list made for the collections. The first historical reference to this library was in the book The Apology of the Christian scholar Tertullian, where he mentions that the library of the Ptolemies is preserved in the Serapeum library and that among the books it contains a copy of the Old Testament, the Jews of Alexandria go to hear it read in the library.
Let’s consider that the library of the Ptolemies is the royal library. It can be said that the original books rescued from the Royal Library of Alexandria were transferred to the Serapeum Library to be placed next to the copies that were already in that daughter library. This analysis is supported by what is mentioned in the Letter of Aristeas (an Alexandrian Jewish writer), which dates back to the end of the first century AD. The manuscripts of the Royal Library were transferred to the Serapeum Library. And in the year 379 AD. St. John Chrysostom mentions the library of the Serapeum in his speech to the Antiochenes that the Serapeum library contains a copy of the Old Testament that Ptolemy II Philadelphus ordered to translate from Hebrew into Greek.
In the year 391 AD. At the instigation of Pope Theophilus, Pope of Alexandria, some Alexandrian Christians destroyed the pagan temple of Serapion and built a church over its ruins. But the destruction of the Serapeion did not affect his library, mostly because it contained many important Christian and Jewish books and other scientific books that were of interest to many pagan and Christian scholars alike.
Until the end of the sixth century AD, we find many historical references to the existence of the Serapeum Library in Alexandria. Among these references, the Alexandrian philosopher Ammonius described that library and the books it contained, such as two copies of Aristotle’s Categories. Among the generations of scholars who suAristotle’sthe Library of Alexandria and worked in it for long hours studying and examining, the geniuses of history preservation were their names, such as Archimedes (citizen of Syracuse) Euclid developed his geometry with it. Centuries and eventually die, while Aristarchus of Samos came up with the opposite thesis, the helium theory (which states the movement of the Earth and other planets around the sun, several centuries before Copernicus).
We also find among the scientists who worked in the library Eratosthenes, who composed geography and completed a map with great accuracy, and Herophilus al-Qalduni, a physiologist who concluded that the centre of intelligence is the brain and not the heart. The astronomers Timcritus, Aristotle and Apollonius Al-Bargami, a well-known mathematician, and Heron of Alexandria, the inventor of cogwheels and self-propelled steam machines, and the author of the book Avtomatica, the first known work on robots, were among the library’s pioneers. At a later stage, around the second century,library’same place, the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy worked in the library and Galen, who composed many works on the art of medicine and anatomy.