Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: buwaya
I recognize that wikipedia is not the most authoritative source, but it's quick and handy:

Several historians told varying accounts of a Arab army led by Amr ibn al 'Aas sacking the city in 642 after the Byzantine army was defeated at the Battle of Heliopolis, and that the commander asked the caliph Umar what to do with the library. He gave the famous answer: "They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous."

Apparently the holding in the library at the time were still quite substantial. It should be noted that the (Christian) Byzantine Empire had controlled Alexandria for centuries prior to the conquest by the Arabs.

6 posted on 12/22/2008 8:48:31 PM PST by ClearCase_guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies ]


To: ClearCase_guy
It should be noted that the (Christian) Byzantine Empire had controlled Alexandria for centuries prior to the conquest by the Arabs.

Ping to investigate later

7 posted on 12/22/2008 8:51:22 PM PST by Alex Murphy ( "Every country has the government it deserves" - Joseph Marie de Maistre)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

To: ClearCase_guy

It seems to be the consensus that the Caliph Omar incident is apocryphal.


9 posted on 12/22/2008 8:55:34 PM PST by buwaya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

To: ClearCase_guy

As I recall, the scrolls from the library were so extensive, that they heated the public baths in Alexandria for 6 months as they burned.


28 posted on 12/23/2008 6:17:33 AM PST by Citizen Tom Paine (Swift as the wind; Calmly majestic as a forest; Steady as the mountains.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson