The Destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria

Great find.

"On the sunny morning in 642 CE., armies of Muslim Arabs , in the process of conquering Eygpt , destroyed the ancient library at Alexandria, which for thousand years had been the Western world's most important center of learning.

The library held a million volumes, including an extensive collection of Greek and Roman literature, as well as works of science, philosophy, religion and law. The Alexandria Library was nothing less than the summit of ancient scholarship. Its archives and museum were filled with the intellectual riches of Mesopatamia, Persia, Greece, Rome and Egypt, and its research center was visited by many generations of scholar's seeking to stimulate their minds and keep alive memories of the past."
bib-arch.org...

Great article and some good information. Some the things I have heard is that the Great Library at Alexnadria also housed many upon many 'secrets' from civilizations prior to the above mentioned civilizations. I have also come to hear that alot was also removed from the Library and carried of to undisclosed places in an act to preserve some of this knowledge left.

I would be interested in any thought about this article. Also on your feelings of the loss of such ancient knowledge and its possible influence it may have had on today. If any one would wish to add info to this I would appreciate links or references. This was a tragic loss and I, for one, feel it if said 'knowledge's' had been saved, intact, we may be different than we are today. Just my thoughts...I hope to read yours.

regards
seekerof

One of the reasons that the Library (& the attached Museum as well) had so much knowledge is that the Ptolemic Pharohs had a law that *any* book or knowledge that entered Egypt was to be copied for inclusion to the Library...

Damn Arabs set back human knowledge by thousands of years simply because they were religious fanatics...

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
One of the reasons that the Library (& the attached Museum as well) had so much knowledge is that the Ptolemic Pharohs had a law that *any* book or knowledge that entered Egypt was to be copied for inclusion to the Library...

Damn Arabs set back human knowledge by thousands of years simply because they were religious fanatics...

Very sad yeah, some fraternities in the pharaon times, were dedicated to the knowledge, just really few people could read and understand a book. Basiclly just the top had access to that books and wisdom, it gives you a way to think about the power that egypt had, they invented the religion in a big scale for the egyptian society, the language, they made a HUGE jump in evolution...
And i still think that library had to do a lot with this anyway...
It is really sad to not be able to see what was inside that library...

This is the biggest lie ever, Christians Destroyed the Library of Alexandria in 391 AD.

CE is a term used by Liberals who can't tollerate Christianity...a disgusting trend.

www.greece.org...

Originally posted by RobertBurns
This is the biggest lie ever, Christians Destroyed the Library of Alexandria in 391 AD.

CE is a term used by Liberals who can't tollerate Christianity...a disgusting trend.

www.greece.org...

First off Robert, hi.

Second, I didn't post the article because it was a 'lie'. I posted it because of what was lost. The volumes of ancient knowledge.

Thirdly, its a well known fact that there is, indeed, a debate thats been going on for many years on 'who' exactly destroyed the Great Library at Alexandria. Might want to read this:
www.bede.org.uk...


Thanks for responding and hope to hear your thoughts on the contents that were lost, taken, moved, or destroyed.

regards
seekerof

[Edited on 3-7-2003 by Seekerof]

[Edited on 3-7-2003 by Seekerof]

Link is working now. (bump)

regards
seekerof

Ok for simplicity's sake I avoided the fact there is controversy as to if the Arabs did in fact finish off the Library of Alexandria for good.

But why?

Because the Christians destroyed anything of real value in it long before Muhammad was ever born, due to the fact that the library was kept by a Pagan woman.

So the mob burned everything in it, mutilated her body and dragged her through the streets.

Anything in the library after that would have been miniscule and of no real value, other than the building itself.

Which really wouldn't have mattered because that whole part of Alexandria is underwater now.

However, the contents of Alexandria were not "lost".

The doccuments and books and all that was in it was destroyed by the Christians in Egypt in 391 AD, but the knowledge was preserved in other doccuments and books by the Church.

And there they remained until they fell into Templar hands, and clergy's hands, and eventually they leaked out into the world.

During the Renaissance the Church lost all control over their archives and this is why today you have Aristotle and Plato.

And why the Renaissance picked up so easily.

It's just not taught much that the Library of Alexandria was not the only place of knowledge, but one of the last places of FREE knowledge, afterwards Europe plunged into the Catholic fueled Dark Age, where the Church gained control of the people through the people's ignorance and illiteracy.

But that's a COMPLETELY other debate.

However in conclusion, it doesn't seem you intended to mar just the Islams, but that it just came off that way, just like I can't truly claim it is a "lie" it's just not fully known.

But now we both have contributed the near complete unmarred view full of a few opinions and ideas to keep a healthy debate going

Interesting post, here some links

www.bede.org.uk...

www.wikipedia.org...

www.mediahistory.umn.edu...

www.milligazette.com...

www.ehistory.com...

Hey, Wake Up!!!

The Vatican ordered the Library destroyed!!
They framed the Muslims because they could and the Muslims do a lot of bad things anyways so that way noone would be confused!!
The Catholic Church raped the world of knowledge and burned the Library down...

Tassadar be very angry now!!

Damn Arabs set back human knowledge by thousands of years simply because they were religious fanatics...

On the contrary, they (arabs) were more advanced (science-wise) than their European counterparts back in the day.... Mr. Burns (hehe...Simpson!) is basically correct in his statements, as far as I know, and there is still quite a lot of debate over who exactly did it. However, as he mentioned, many of the tomes did end up with the church, so you start to see the answer....

Just wait till Illmatic or AV get to this thread, hehe...

You are all getting off topic imo.
Seekerof aim was not to discuss who burned the Library down, but to discuss the contents of the library.

Originally posted by Tassadar

Hey, Wake Up!!!

The Vatican ordered the Library destroyed!!
They framed the Muslims because they could and the Muslims do a lot of bad things anyways so that way noone would be confused!!
The Catholic Church raped the world of knowledge and burned the Library down...

Tassadar be very angry now!!

It'll be ok Tassadar, really.
As has been mentioned, this topic is on what was lost, not who caused the loss. That is still a matter unresolved to present date.

regards
seekerof

I either read an article or saw on TV about how the Great Library housed information on Atlantis.

They framed the Muslims because they could and the Muslims do a lot of bad things anyways so that way noone would be confused!!

Can you elaborate on this a bit more,
Why does everyone just make muslims the scapegoats for all of lifes miserys.
Deep

Originally posted by Freddie
I either read an article or saw on TV about how the Great Library housed information on Atlantis.

I remember that program also Freddie. I have read unrelated but yet related material(s) saying that there were, indeed, ancient historical records, represented and housed in the Great Library at Alexandria. That these ancient historical records, books, scrolls, were from a civilization(s) prior to or had ended during the early 'foundings' of Eygpt, India (Indus), Sumeria, etc.

Personally, thats why I find this topis so appealing and thought provoking. The information lost was obviously 'lost forever'. Even if most or half or some of the information/books/scrolls/knowledge was indeed moved and then 'hidden' from the world, cause it is, it still would not account for the total knowledge, etc. that was certainly lost.

regards
seekerof

Originally posted by ZeroDeep

They framed the Muslims because they could and the Muslims do a lot of bad things anyways so that way noone would be confused!!

Can you elaborate on this a bit more,
Why does everyone just make muslims the scapegoats for all of lifes miserys.
Deep

Mis-interpretations.

regards
seekerof

Who ever it was who burned the great Library of alexandria, they were odviously ignorant fanatic fools.
Whether it was christian or muslim extremists.

We saw what happened to the museum in Iraq recently.

If it was the muslims who burned the library of Alexandria, It definately was not the scientific scholars and philosiphers of Islam. They were probably just as sad as anyone that the great Library was destroyed.

Some people believe that Atlantis, and records of trade routes through the Americas were some of the types of archives that may have been recorded in the Great Library.

Whatever the case, We will never know.

Actually though, before the final burning of the Library (I've read of three seperate occasions when that happened, although only *portions* of the knowledge was lost during the earlier burnings), Cleopatra wound up giving a *lot* of scrolls to the Romans...So it would be a misomer to say that *all* of that accumulated knowledge was lost anyway. It stands to reason that *some* of it was passed down through history, primarily through the Romans.

...Although it must also be pointed out that much of the Roman culture was based upon Greece...And much of Greek culture (after their Dark Ages) originated in Egypt...

MidnightDestroyer, it is a misnomer to say all the knowledge was burned.

That's why I said all the "Public Knowledge" was burned.

After the Christian destruction of Alexandria in 300s AD, it wasn't long before we hit the Dark Age, then all the knowledge of the world was possession of the Church, and their literate clergy.

The treasures lost is a sad thing we may never realize in full.
It should be known that The Vatican is not truly representitive of Christianity. The pope did not get marching orders from the Almighty: Thundering voice..."Go forth my son and rape the world and shame little children into acts of indecency!!! Kill innocent muslims in my name! Consort with the nations of the world to subjugate and grow wealthy!!"