Library of Alexandria

Notes
1.   ^ Pollard, Justin, and Reid, Howard. 2006. The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Birthplace of the Modern World.
2.   ^ Bibliotheca Alexandrina website.
3.   ^ Letter of Aristeas, 9–12.
4.   ^ Entry Μουσείον at Liddell & Scott.
5.   ^ Manguel, Alberto. The Library at Night. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008, p. 26.
6.   ^ Erksine, Andrew. 1995. "Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Museum and Library of Alexandria". Greece & Rome, 2nd ser., 42(1), 38-48.
7.   ^ Whibley, Leonard; A Companion to Greek Studies 1916 pp. 122–123.
8.   ^ Tarn, W.W. 1928. Ptolemy II. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 14(3/4), 246-260. The Byzantine writer Tzetzes gives a similar figure in his essay On Comedy.
9.   ^ James Burke related this story in Episode 2 of Connections Series 1, "Death in the Morning".
10.   ^ a b Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 49.6.
11.   ^ Aulus Gellius. Attic Nights book 7 chapter 17.
12.   ^ Caesar, de bello alexandrino (the Alexandrian Wars).
13.   ^ Jean-Yves Empereur, Alexandria - Jewel of Egypt, p. 43.
14.   ^ Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi (On Tranquility of Mind).
15.   ^ Vrettos, Theodore. "Alexandria, City of the Western Mind". New York: The Free Press, 2001, pp. 93-94.
16.   ^ Jean-Yves Empereur, Alexandria - Jewel of Egypt, p. 41.
17.   ^ Strabo, Book 17 1.7-10
18.   ^ Jean-Yves Empereur, Alexandria - Jewel of Egypt, p. 18.
19.   ^ Jean-Yves Empereur, Alexandria - Jewel of Egypt, p. 44.
20.   ^ a b Staff Report: "What happened to the great Library of Alexandria? The Straight Dope, 6 December 2005
21.   ^ Marcellinus, Ammianus (1862), "Roman History: book 22.16.12-13", in Yonge, C.D., Roman History, London: H.G. Bohn
22.   ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 28.
23.   ^ Socrates; Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson (1885), "Socrates: Book V: Chapter 16", in Philip Schaff et al., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, II, U.S.
24.   ^ Paulus Orosius, vi.15.32
25.   ^ El-Abbadi, Mostafa (1990), The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria (2, illustrated ed.), Unesco/UNDP, pp. 159, 160, ISBN 9231026321
26.   ^ De Sacy, Relation de l’Egypte par Abd al-Latif, Paris, 1810: "Above the column of the pillars is a dome supported by this column. I think this building was the portico where Aristotle taught, and after him his disciples; and that this was the academy that Alexander built when he built this city, and where was placed the library which Amr ibn-Alas burned, with the permission of Omar." Google books here. Translation of De Sacy from here. Other versions of Abd-el-Latif in English here.
27.   ^ Samir Khalil, «L’utilisation d’al-Qifṭī par la Chronique arabe d’Ibn al-‘Ibrī († 1286)», in : Samir Khalil Samir (Éd.), Actes du IIe symposium syro-arabicum (Sayyidat al-Bīr, septembre 1998). Études arabes chrétiennes, = Parole de l'Orient 28 (2003) 551-598.
28.   ^ Edward Pococke, Bar Hebraeus: Historia Compendiosa Dynastiarum, Oxford, 1663. Arabic text, Latin translation. This is the only edition and translation ever printed of this work. In 1650 Pococke had previously translated this portion in his Specimen Historiae Arabvm; sive, Gregorii Abul Farajii Malatiensis De origine & moribus Arabum succincta narratio, in linguam latinam conversa, notisque è probatissimis apud ipsos authoribus, fusiùs illus., operâ & studio Edvardi Pocockii. Oxoniae: 1650: excudebat H. Hall. This is a collection of extracts from Arabic histories, all unpublished at that date, intended to determine if there was public interest.
29.   ^ Ed. Pococke, p.181, translation on p.114. Online Latin text and English translation here. Latin: “Quod ad libros quorum mentionem fecisti: si in illis contineatur, quod cum libro Dei conveniat, in libro Dei [est] quod sufficiat absque illo; quod si in illis fuerit quod libro Dei repugnet, neutiquam est eo [nobis] opus, jube igitur e medio tolli.” Jussit ergo Amrus Ebno’lAs dispergi eos per balnea Alexandriae, atque illis calefaciendis comburi; ita spatio semestri consumpti sunt. Audi quid factum fuerit et mirare."
30.   ^ Alfred J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion, Oxford, 1902, Chapter 25, p.401 f.: "Thus speaking of the Serapeum he says, ‘Some think that these columns upheld the Porch of Aristotle, who taught philosophy here: that it was a school of learning: and that it contained the library which was burnt by `Amr on the advice of the Caliph Omar’ (Khitat, vol. i. p. 159)."
31.   ^ Quoted by Wahid Akhtar (tr), Murtada Mutahhari-quddisa sirruh, Alleged Book Burnings in Iran and Egypt: A Study of Related Facts and Fiction, in al Tawhid vol 14, No. 1 Spring 1997. Ibn Khaldum is quoted as follows: "It is said that these sciences reached Greece from the Persians, when Alexander killed Darius and conquered Persia, getting access to innumerable books and sciences developed by them. And when Iran was conquered (by Muslims) and books were found there in abundance, Sa’d ibn Abi al-Waqqas wrote to `Umar ibn al-Khattab asking his permission to have them translated for Muslims. ‘Umar wrote to him in reply that he should cast them into water, “for if what is written in those books is guidance, God has given us a better guide; and if that which is in those books is misleading, God has saved us from their evil.” Accordingly those books were cast into water or fire, and the sciences of the Iranians that were contained in them were destroyed and did not reach us."
32.   ^ Alfred J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion, Oxford, 1902, Chapter 25, p.403.
33.   ^ Alfred J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion, Oxford, 1902, Chapter 25, p.401: "...learned opinions still differ, and the problem remains unsolved."
34.   ^ E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chapter 51 : "It would be endless to enumerate the moderns who have wondered and believed, but I may distinguish with honour the rational scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex. Patriarch, p. 170: ) historia … habet aliquid ut απιστον ut Arabibus familiare est." However Butler says: "Renaudot thinks the story has an element of untrustworthiness: Gibbon discusses it rather briefly and disbelieves it." (ch.25, p.401)
35.   ^ Lewis, Bernard. "The Vanished Library". The New York Review of Books. 37(14). 27 September 1990.
36.   ^ Kelly Trumble, The Library of Alexandria, Robina MacIntyre Marshall, p. 51: "Today most scholars have discredited the story of the story of the destruction of the Library by the Muslims."
37.   ^ MacLeod, Roy, The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning, p. 71: "The story first appears 500 years after the Arab conquest of Alexandria. John the Grammarian appears to be John Philoponus, who must have been dead by the the time of the conquest. It seems, as shown above, that both of the Alexandrian libraries were destroyed by the end of the fourth century, and there is no mention of any library surviving at Alexandria in the Christian literature of the centuries following that date. It is also suspicious that Omar is recorded to have made the same remark about books found by the Arab during their conquest of Iran."
38.   ^ L. Canfora, The vanished library, University of California Press (1990), p.109 f.
[edit] References
•   Brundige, Ellen. The Decline of the Library and Museum of Alexandria, 10 December 1991.
•   Canfora, Luciano (trans. Martin Ryle) (1989). The Vanished Library. A Wonder of the Ancient World. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520072553.
•   El-Abbadi, Mostafa (1992). Life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria (2nd edition ed.). Paris: UNESCO. ISBN 9231026321.
•   Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (chapter: "Destruction of Paganism", "The temple of Serapis at Alexandria" and "Its final destruction, A.D. 389" subchapters).
•   Jochum, Uwe. "The Alexandrian Library and Its Aftermath" from Library History vol), p. 5-12.
•   Orosius, Paulus (trans. Roy J. Deferrari) (1964). The Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America. (No ISBN).
•   Parsons, Edward. The Alexandrian Library. London, 1952. Relevant online excerpt.
•   Macleod, Roy, editor (2nd edition). The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1850435944.
•   Stille, Alexander: The Future of the Past (chapter: "The Return of the Vanished Library"). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. p. 246-273.
[edit] External links
•   Ellen N. Brundige: The Library of Alexandria.
•   James Hannam: The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria.
•   History Magazine: The Great Library.
•   Papyrus fragment (P.Oxy.1241): An ancient list of head librarians.
•   The Straight Dope Straight Dope Staff Report: "What happened to the great Library of Alexandria?"
•   The BBC Radio 4 program In Our Time (BBC Radio 4) discussed The Library of Alexandria 12.03.2009
•   Friends of the Library of Alexandria (official Mexican site)
•   Bibliotheca Alexandrina (official site)
•   The Burning of the Library of Alexandria
•   Heather Phillips: The Great Library of Alexandria