The most famous library of antiquity was Alexandria believed to have been founded by Ptolemy I Soter (Ptolemios) who reigned until 248 B.C. It was originally conceived, not as a library, but as a research center, similar to Aristotle's Library in Athens, which was to hold the collected knowledge of the world. It was the first systematic and serious collection of documentation on physics, literature, mathematics, medicine, astrology, biology and engineering. The library's estimated holdings were circa 700,000 rolls and included writings of the Greeks as well as other civilizations.
History
- Alexandria Library - The Famous Library of Alexandria is now being rebuilt on what is believed to be the original site of this great source of knowledge. This web site has a brief section on Alexandria Library, but not in detail.
- The BBC reports that a joint Egyptian-Polish team believes that they have discovered the ancient Library of Alexandria, including ancient lecture halls or auditora, in the Brucheion region of the ancient city.
- There was another daughter library at Pompey's pillar (which was not built by Pompey by the way). This one survived for 4 more centuries, but was plundered by Christian fanatic mobs. The same mob dragged the philosopher/mathematician/priestess Hypatia.
- Some information on the Alexandria Library (Egyptian State Information) from the Egyptian State Information.
- Article on The Ptolemaic Legacy.
- A collection of Alexandrian Scholarship papers.
- Al Ahram article by Samir Sadek titled The Mouseion revisited.
Who burned the Library of Alexandria?
The Library of Alexandria held the greatest collection of human knowledge at the time. Its destruction was a contributing factor to the decline in collective intellect of the classical world. An oft-quoted fallacy is that the Arabs destroyed the Library of Alexandria when they conquered Egypt in the 7th century. This has been proven to be a mere fable, often used to malign Muslims and Arabs.
Here are some articles on the topic:
- An article discrediting the accusation that the conquering Arab armies burnt what is left of the library.
- An article in Milli Gazette, by VA Mohamad Ashrof titled Who burned the library of Alexandria?
- An eHistory article The burning of the library of Alexandria by Preston Chesser. It does not try to reach a conclusion on who really did it, but list all of those who were blamed by one party or another for doing it.
- The Wikipedia entry on the Library of Alexandria has a discussion on the topic.
- An article by Bernard Lewis in the New York Review of Books. He absolves Omar and Amr from doing so, and tries to give an explanation as to why the myth was started.
- History of the Library of Alexandria from the Catholic Encyclopedia. They discredit the story of Arabs burning it, and list the evidence against that.
- An extensive discussion in Arabic with a lot of details from various sides of the issue.
- Another brief article in Arabic on the issue.
- An article by Ellen Brundige on the Decline of the Library of Alexandria in the Christian era.
The Modern Library
A modern library of Alexandria has been build, close to the supposed site of the old one.
- Web site of The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which is a modern library renamed after its original predecessor.
This article was sourced from http://baheyeldin.com
Links:
The Modern Alexandria library official site
The Vanished Library The History of the Alexandria Library
History of Alexandria
Library history from History Magazine
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