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Sunday 25 August 2013

The Lost Treasures of the World – Part 1: The “Burning” history of the Library of Alexandria

For all Kitabi Keedas like us, books are the essence of life…books are the oxygen that we breathe. In fact we cannot imagine a World deprived of books, our very first introduction to the world of knowledge!!

Can you, then, imagine a library, etched in the pages of ancient history, as one of most extensive, exhaustive & well-stocked libraries being burnt down to ground due to countless invasions?? Of scrolls & parchments, texts & scriptures, so priceless, burnt completely & lost forever because some fools bent on conquering pieces of land, ignored the value of these books that were housed in the great Library of Alexandria & burnt it down completely.

The Library of Alexandria (Egypt), is one of the oldest known libraries of Ancient Civilisations of the World!! It was established by Alexander’s successor, Ptolmey II in 283 BC as a “shrine of knowledge”. Ptolemy II Soter’s vision was to make the Royal Library of Alexandria as a centre point for all ancient civilisations of the world!! He used to send ships to these civilisations with requests to send over their prized literary pieces that could be housed under the vast roof of Alexandria.

Some historians define the library as a huge palace that housed over 100 scholars, whose job was to maintain the library with proper documentation. The precious pieces of literature were collected from civilisations like India, Greece, Assyria, Egypt, Persia etc. & were painstakingly translated in the local dialect as a copy. These were then housed in an orderly fashion & further copies were generated & housed so that the works can be made available to more people. The library was also a seat of knowledge, with proofs to show that classes of literature were held in its huge premises. The library, supposedly, housed over half a million scrolls from all over the world…some of these works so valuable & priceless, that they were not made accessible to everyone.

The Library was designed as a reader’s delight with the middle area divided into plush gardens with fountains & a zoo area as well. The idea was to create an ambient atmosphere for a reader to be lost in the vast sea of knowledge!!

THE GREAT DESTRUCTION STORY:

The Library of Alexandria was ravaged four times (as recorded in history). The first to destroy this library was none other than Julius Caesar in 48 BC. In his pursuit of Pompey, who had fled to Egypt, Caesar was cut off by Egyptian fleet in his attempts. As a military strategy Caesar ordered the Egyptian fleet of ships to be burnt. The fire spread wild & burnt some nearby houses, including a vast section of this ancient library!! 235 years of precious work lost in the flames of destruction!! The precious works of ancient learned men, lost forever from the face of this world. The secrets of almost all major ancient civilisations lost over Pompey & Caesar. Only a book lover can understand the pain of this destruction…it is not for war leaders, whose only aim in life was to annex pieces of land!! (what a waste..and we remember them as legends).

Over the years, it is claimed many other factors further contributed in complete destruction of this shrine of knowledge.

A civil war like situation between, Emperor Aurelian & Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 3rd century AD, which resulted in a damage of this library & its contents;

Then Emperor Theodosius in 391 AD, who wanted Christianity to spread in Egypt, and banned Pagan worship, considering all Pagan temples (including this library that was designed as a temple), to be heathen establishments and ordering them to be banned and closed down. In fact Socrates recorded this event as follows:

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.

—Socrates; Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James (1885), "Socrates: Book V: Chapter 16", in Philip Schaff et al., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, II II

Thus, converting a portion of the library into a church, caused further destruction of the library & its treasures.

The last known & recorded destruction was in 642 AD supposedly. In that year Alexandria was invaded by Arabic ruler Amr ibn al Aas. On his & Caliph Omar’s orders, the remnants of a now struggling Library of Alexandria were completely destroyed. Whatever the library was struggling to hold onto, as a remnant of its past days of glory, was finally lost forever.

Today, historians can argue over many reasons behind this destruction, but the fact of the matter is, that due to the foolishness of some men, who considered violence & annexation a far greater virtue than knowledge, the World at large is deprived of the untold & invaluable treasures of the Royal Library of Alexandria.

The LAMENT shall continue till Civilised Humans choose to exist!!

 

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