The Fate of the Library of Alexandria

American Thinker ^ | May 02, 2010 | John O'Neill

[Sherman Logan]

Sure had.

Considering the fact that the Roman Empire lasted much longer than any other great empire, 700 to 1700 years, depending on how you figure it, a more logical question might be to ask how it was able to last so long before it finally fell.

As stated, my personal opinion is the lack of an ideology to establish who had the right to be the next emperor. This had horrible consequences not only at each accession, but in between.

Most Roman emperors who founded a dynasty came to power by coup or civil war. Every reigning emperor therefore could never fully trust truly competent and ambitious generals, as he had to always remember their potential to displace and kill him.

This is in considerable contrast to the primogeniture monarchies of early modern times. Louis X or Henry VIII never had to worry that one of his generals would replace him on the throne, as nobody would follow such a usurper. When the King died, with rare exceptions everybody knew who the next king was and loyalty usually went to him without a pause.

This didn’t prevent dynastic conspiracy and civil war, but even then it was limited to members of the royal family, not a total free-for-all as in the Roman Empire.

[lentulusgracchus]

The Wiki article said that historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who traveled there, spoke about the Serapis Temple library in the past tense, meaning it was gone already by about 350-360, although the temple itself was in great shape. Which leaves the Caesarion Temple library ...... if the author's right and Constantine and Constantius (his son) cleared the Serapis Library out and sent its contents to Constantinople, then they'd have probably cleaned out the Caesarion one as well.

Of course, the royal library, the really big one, will have been the collection destroyed in the 3rd century, 60 years earlier.

[Eternal_Bear]

Yes it sure was. The Emperor Constantine built it to be the capital of the Eastern Empire and it ended up being capital of the Byzantine Empire which was the successor state to Rome. It has fallen only twice by storm to foreign powers: to the Franks of the Fourth Crusade and the Ottoman Turks who both did tremendous damage to the cultural legacy of the city.

[afraidfortherepublic]

These communities had to pay a tax (called a Jizzya in Arabic) that was, in effect, a penalty for being non-Muslim, and that was typically 80% in times of tolerance and up to 150% in times of oppression. This tax forced many of these communities to convert to Islam, as it was designed to do.

Hmmmmm. That sounds a lot like some of Obama's plans for us...

[samtheman]

The post of Fred Nerks #34 is as important to read as the main article itself. Thanks, Fred.

[pepsionice]

What’s curious here...is that libraries in general...whether in Egypt, or Syria, or the Mayan civilization, or the Inca civilization...all were destroyed for some reason (usually invented out of thin air).

People fear the past. There are too many lessons to be learned and information is a terrible thing in the hands of anyone.

In some way, even WIKI today is destroying history...likely because they fear it.

[wildandcrazyrussian]

Brigitte Gabriel's book mentioned that the Muslims have (so far) massacred 80,000,000 Hindus, 60,000,000 Christians, and another 270,000,000 in Africa. And that's just the first 1,400 years.

Islam is easily the worst disaster the world has ever seen, and the guiding principle behind Hitler, who openly wished that Europe were Islamic instead of Christian.

[Fred Nerks]

IT’S NOT JUST THE TAX! THIS ‘PACT’ DATES FROM 637 AD.

Pact of Umar - islam
Muslims always try to downplay the the ‘Pact of Umar’. Read this from tafsir.com regarding it:

Do not initiate the Salam to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley.) This is why the Leader of the faithful `Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met by the Christians, these conditions that ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace. (source)

http://www.annaqed.com/english/is/pact_of_umar.html -

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2002/jul26.html

The pact of Umar is an agreement between the Christians of Syria (whom fell under the occupation of the Muslim invaders) and Umar Ibn Al-Khattab the second successor (khalifa) of Muhammad.

In this pact, Umar agreed to allow the Christians to keep practicing their faith with several conditions. Muslims claim that this pact shows how tolerant Islam was in dealing with non-Muslims in newly invaded territories.

Contrary to that claim, this pact was very humiliating to Christians, clearly showing how arrogant and oppressive the Muslims were in dealing with non-Muslims who fell under their rule. Although the pact was written to seem like the Christians themselves had drafted it, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the terms were actually dictated on them!

Sadly, there are some naïve Christians who reiterate the Muslims’ propaganda without ever bothering to read the details of the pact. In fact, some Christians are so stupid that they brag about it more than the Muslims do! A recently elected Christian Orthodox patriarch praised the pact in his speech during a reception held in his honor in Jordan!

The “Pact of Umar” reflects the general teaching of Islam concerning non-Muslims, and accordingly, millions of Christians continue to live as second class citizens in Islamic countries.

The following is a translation of the pact:

***************

The Status of Non-Muslims Under Muslim Rule We heard from ‘Abdul-Rahman Ibn Ghanam [died in year 78 H. 697 AD.] as follows: When Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the Christians of Syria, we wrote to him as follows:

In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a letter to the servant of Allah Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from the Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked you for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations toward you:

ARTICLES OF THE PACT OF UMAR
We Christians:
1 - We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries,
2 - churches,
3 - convents,
4 - or monks’ cells,
5 - nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins
6 - or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims. . . .
7- We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy,
8 - nor hide him from the Muslims. We shall not teach the Quran to our children.
9 - We shall not manifest our religion publicly
10 - nor convert anyone to it.
11 - We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it.
12 - We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and
13 - we shall rise from our seats if they wish to sit.
14 - We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the headgear, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair.
15 - We shall not speak as they do,
16 - nor shall we adopt their honorific names.
17 - We shall not mount on saddles,
18- nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of arms nor carry them on our persons.
19 - We shall not engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals.
20 - We shall not sell fermented drinks. . . .
21 - We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims.
22 - We shall only use clappers in our churches very softly.
23 - We shall not raise our voices in our church services or in the presence of Muslims,
24 - nor shall we raise our voices when following our dead.
25 - We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets.
26 - We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims.
27 - We shall not take slave who have been allotted to the Muslims.
28 - We shall not build houses over-topping the houses of the Muslims. . . .
(When I brought the letter to Umar, he added, “And we shall not strike a Muslim. We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.

If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition.

Umar Ibn Al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add two clauses and impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken. They are: “They shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims,” and “Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact.”

http://islamreview.blogspot.com/2006/05/pact-of-umar-islam.html

[samtheman]

Thanks again, Fred.

[Chuckster]

bttt

[jpsb]

If true, they set the whole world back possibly a century or more.

More like a 800 years. 700AD-1500AD, 800 years. What a waste, once the Egypt and the Middle East were the jewls of western civiliztaion. Now, not so much.

[Boiler Plate]

As screwed up as the Ptolemys were they certainly understood that “Knowledge is Power”. What was intersting about Alexandria is that a lot of the amazing Greek ideas, inventions and science actually came from Alexandia.

[jpsb]

Every time I start to think maybe Carly Fiorina isn't all that terrible I come across something like this and I want to puke. Boxer is horrible but so is Carly.

[Cronos]

it’s true. I give you as proof 5 places that were the centres of civilisation but whose importance in the world, culturally, socially, philosophically, economically, in innovation etc. disappeared as the % of Mooselimbs increased = Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Yemen was once a flourishing land with a history dating back to at least 6000 BC, with people smart enough to build a massive dam of earthernworks at Marib that made their desert bloom, where they became rich due to myrrh and frankincense. But now where is Yemen? It’s a cesspit. And it’s been a cesspit since the 7th century when the Christians and Jews were chased out.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for a very interesting thread.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) My pleasure.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Gee now I know where the liberals got their ideas.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

Anyone out there have an estimate of what the literacy rate was in the ancient and Medieval world? I consider it to be very low.

[GOPJ]

Nice picture - save it for the 20th.

[GOPJ]

Arabs/Muslims are engaged in an explicit campaign of destruction and expropriation of cultures and communities, identities and ideas. Wherever Arab/Muslim civilization encounters a non-Arab/Muslim one, it attempts to destroy it (as the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan were destroyed, as Persepolis was destroyed by the Ayotollah Khomeini). This is a pattern that has been recurring since the advent of Islam, 1400 years ago, and is amply substantiated by the historical record. If the "foreign" culture cannot be destroyed, then it is expropriated, and revisionist historians claim that it is and was Arab, as is the case of most of the Arab "accomplishments" you cited in your speech.

Fred, you have a way of finding the interesting stuff - thanks so much for sharing it with me.