……………and didn’t the muslims burn the library at Alexandria?
I believe it was the Romans
Yes, it was the muzzies. Caesar referred to the destruction of “some books which chanced to be there” when he had the Egyptian fleet burned in the middle of the night. But that was in reference to some warehouse by the docks, and he was up in the citadel at the time, which is where the great library was located. Also the library continued to operate for centuries after that, which is difficult to reconcile with its destruction.
Curiously, in late Roman or early Byzantine times (I forget), the original papyrus versions of the books (scrolls) were getting long in the tooth and were copied onto parchment, which is the version of the library incinerated by order of the caliph in the 7th c.
What that may mean is, the papyrus versions were unceremoniously dumped in a refuse pile and, thanks to the arid conditions, may be just waiting for the day someone comes along and finds the entire pile of fragments, not unlike what has happened at Oxyrhynchus.