[Lonesome in Massachussets]

There has to be a certain cultural schizophrenia in Egypt. They own one of the greatest cultural legacies in the world, whose true extent and nature is only now in the process of being uncovered by Westerners. Yet they are in thrall to a backward Bedouin superstition imposed by ruthless conquerors a millenium ago, who played a large part in marring and destroying that heritage. (viz., The burning of library at Alexandria.) Certainly Egypt is one of the wellsprings of Western culture, but they have turned their collective backs on it for a repressive atavistic cult.

[R. Scott]

The Muslim burning of the library in 642 was the third destruction. The second was in 391 by Christians. The first burning was in 47 BC when it was partially burned down during the Alexandrine War in 47 BC (collateral damage) by the Romans.

[chasio649]

nice post...most excellent!

[night reader]

...they are in thrall to a backward Bedouin superstition imposed by ruthless conquerors a millenium ago, who played a large part in marring and destroying that heritage. (viz., The burning of library at Alexandria.)

Thought Julius Caesar's Army played a role in the burning of the library. That was some seven or eight hundred years earlier. The library in Mohammed's time was a shadow of its former self.