One of the many modern literary wonders lost in time
When Alexander the Great pushed his way east, he did more than just create a Greek Empire. He also spread the Hellenic culture wherever he conquered. One such influence was the great Library of Alexandria, which is considered to be the largest library in the ancient world. Alexandria itself was founded in 331 BC and it is commonly believed that the library followed shortly after around 300 BC. Over 2000 years ago, the Library of Alexandria was probably the most important learning center in the world. Here, men first figured out the size of the world, and the number of stars in the sky.
It was built by Ptolemy II, who became the ruler of Egypt after Alexander the Great in the third century BC. However, the exact date of when it was founded isn’t well known. Though the library was founded after Alexander’s death, in many ways, it is a tribute to all that he accomplished.
It contained some 500,000 books and was a fabled repository of the wisdom and arts of the ancient world. The type of knowledge was magical, philosophical, religious.
The Library of Alexandria was actually closer to being a University than a Library. The idea was that if you got the greatest thinkers in the world, brought them together, and force them to interact with each other, they would come up with even better ideas.
The majority of the Library’s space was lecture halls, dormitories, and cafeterias that were designed in a manner to encourage experts in different fields to interact with each other. There were laboratories, gardens, and a medical school. It was rumored that the corridors of this library may have held the secrets of centuries of knowledge. The most surprising thing about the library is that it lasted for about 6 centuries. It was the golden age of Alexandria.
The founding of the library in Alexandria has been called the beginning of modern history. More than just the library it was the world’s first research center. Scholars, philosophers, educators, and dignitaries were allowed to sleep, eat and reside in the library itself as long as they have some valuable piece of knowledge to add to the library’s collection. Sometimes agents were sent abroad to bring back new works. On occasions, manuscripts were donated other times they were purchased. In this way, Alexandria acquired the largest collection of books ever existed in that time.
We don’t know where it was or what books it had, we don’t know what it looked like or everybody who was there. There is more we don’t know than we do know. The library of Alexandria was — eclectic- they wanted not only Greek text but also Turkish text, Babylonian text, Hebrew Bible, in short, they wanted everything. However, most of the text was present either in Greek or Egyptian language. Astrology and astronomy were popular science throughout the existence of the library.
The legendary library — the unmatched collection of books — was burned accidentally when Julius Caesar took Alexandria in 47 BC. Some accounts consider that the library was deliberately destroyed and others, such as that relating to Julius Caesar’s army in BCE 48, that it was more of an accident and that the library probably wasn’t destroyed but simply warehouses containing books/scrolls at the docks where Caesar set his ships on fire.
That fire and probably conquest were responsible for the destruction is further complicated by the fact that Alexandria had a tumultuous history with much unrest and destruction.
A fraction, at least, of the library was restored by Marc Antony. During his dalliance with Cleopatra, he gave her the contents of the Library of Pergamum to help replace books destroyed in Caesar’s fire. This was a substantial collection — about 200,000 scrolls — but it was significantly smaller than the original and was dubbed the daughter library.
The daughter library became the target for those who seek knowledge until the reign of Emperor Theodosius. During the reign of Emperor Theodosius, as a Nicene Christian himself, he saw that science and art existing in the library is a form of heresy and opposed God’s will and Christianity as a general. So he ordered the library to be destroyed completely in the year 389 AD.
When Muslim Persian ruler Caliph Omar Ibn Khattab came to reign Egypt, he ordered, the search for lost manuscripts of the Alexandria library. The conquest didn’t succeed much as almost everything was destroyed by the hands of Emperor Theodosius. However, some manuscripts and books were saved. The amount of data saved from the old Alexandria Library amounts to as much as only 10% of what was in the original library.
Other accounts of library destructions suggest that when Muslim rulers came to Alexandria, they ordered all those books which are not in accordance with Islamic teachings to be destroyed and those which don’t oppose are redundant as is so they should be destroyed.
In the end, all of the stories surrounding the decline and destruction of the Alexandrian library may combine to provide the truth. Perhaps the great institution died by degrees, Caesar’s fire here, lacking funding there, Christian revolution, Muslim invasion, and finally the coastal climate may have contributed to the loss of the largest collection of scrolls in antiquity. Whatever may have remained could have just disintegrated. Perhaps what is most important is not what is lost but did it ever exist?