Bismika Alllahuma

Ptolemy II, que se transformou a régua de Egipto após Alexander o grande no terceiro século BC, era um patron grande da aprendizagem, e fundava uma biblioteca em Alexandria, Egipto, que conteve aproximadamente 5.00.000 livros em assuntos diferentes. É esta coleção que é sabida na história como a biblioteca grande em Alexandria.

Foi alegado que esta biblioteca estêve queimada para baixo pelo escaninho Aas no behest do segundo Caliph, Umar do Amr. A história vai indicar que o Amr alimentou as fornalhas numerosas do banho da cidade com os volumes da biblioteca de Alexandrian. A história relaciona também a observação oft-citada feita alegada por Caliph Umar (governado: 634-644) quando consentiu na destruição da biblioteca, “se estes escrita dos gregos concordarem com o livro do deus, são inúteis e não necessitam ser preservadas; se discordarem, são pernicious e ought ser destruídos”. Era, a história continua, a isso, decidido que os livros eram contrários ao Quran e a biblioteca inteira estêve queimada para baixo sem abertura uniforme os livros.

Igualando a queimadura da biblioteca de Alexandria com a aquela da política Nazi, Joseph Barnabas escreve, “os argumentos de Caliph Umar e a queimadura Nazi do livro não é sem explanações.”¹ Um theorist de Hindutva, B.N. O movimento, estava mais emphatic e desobstruído: “Muitos povos são surpreendidos que Caliph Umar se queimou abaixo a biblioteca enorme e rica de Constantinople. O impuso para que faça assim era, entretanto, desde que por sua religião.”²

Enciclopédia Britanica diz que a biblioteca de Alexandrian, no fato, tinha sido destruído muito mais cedo no quarto século A.D, long antes do advent do Islam: “A biblioteca sobreviveu o disintegration de Alexander? império de s (primeiro século BC) e continuado a existir sob a régua Roman até o terceiro ANÚNCIO do século.”³ A verdade é que um meio desta biblioteca estiveram queimadas por Julius Caesar em 47 BC. No terceiro século, Alexandria veio sob o domination dos cristãos. At another place the same work states that, “The main museum and library were destroyed during the civil war of the third century AD and a subsidiary library was burned by Christians in AD 391.”⁴

Phillip K Hitti states that the story “is one of those tales that make good fiction but bad history.” He goes on, “…the great Ptolemic library was burnt as early as 48 BC by Julius Ceasar. A later one, referred to as the daughter library, was destroyed about AD 389 as a result of an edict by the Emperor Theodosius. At the time of the Arab conquest, therefore, no library of importance existed in Alexandria and no contemporary writer ever brought the charge about Amr or Umar.”⁵

Bernard Lewis, a vehement critic of Islam, has thus summarised the verdict of modern scholarship on the subject:

“Modern research has shown the story to be completely unfounded. None of the early chronicles, not even the Christian ones, make any reference to this tale, which is mentioned in the 13th century, and in any case the great library of Serapenum had already been destroyed in internal dissensions before the coming of the Arabs.”⁶

Lewis wrote the above words in 1950. As late as in 1990, he went on to state, “not the creation, but the demolition of the myth was achievement of European scholarship, which from the 18th century to the present day has rejected the story as false and absurd, and thus exonerated the Caliph Umar and the early Muslims from this libel.”⁷

John M. Robertson, a historian of rationalistic and free thought, also dismissed the story of the destruction of the Alexandrian library by Umar as a myth.⁸

Historian D.P. Singhal considers the story untenable.⁹ Singhal writes,

“It makes its first appearance in the solitary report of a stranger, Abul Faraj, who wrote 500 years later. The reported sentence of the Caliph is alien to the traditional precept of the Muslim casuists who had expressly commanded the preservation of captured religious text of the Jews and Christians, and had declared that the works of profane scientists and philosophers could be lawfully applied to the believer.”¹⁰

Bertrand Russell has gone deep into the controversy and made the following statement:

“Every Christian has been taught the story of the Caliph destroying the Library in Alexandria. As a matter of fact, this library was frequently destroyed and frequently recreated. Its first destroyer was Julius Caesar, and its last antedated the Prophet. The early Mohammedans, unlike the Christians, tolerated those whom they called ?people of the Book?, provided they paid tribute. In contrast to the Christians, who persecuted not only pagans but each other, the Mohammedans were welcomed for their broadmindedness, and it was largely this that facilitated their conquests. To come to later times, Spain was ruined by fanatical hatred of Jews and Moors; France was disastrously impoverished by the persecution of Huguenots.”¹¹

In the 500 years between the supposed event and its first reporter no Christian historian mentions it, though one of them, Eutychius, Archbishop of Alexandria in 933, described the Arab conquest of Alexandria in great detail.

Colin Wilson, a popular science writer and researcher expressed his firm opinion that the demolition of the Alexandrian library was caused by Christian clergy. He writes,

“The Library of Alexandria ? which contained, among other things, Aristotle?s own collection of books ? was burned down on the orders of the Archbishop of Alexandria (backed by the Emperor Theodosius). Knowledge was evil; had not Adam been evicted from Paradise for wanting to know?”¹²

M.N. Roy penetratingly analysed the issue in a wider perspective. It is worth quoting some part of his views on the subject:

“While books written in the 11th and 12th century indignantly details the shocking tale of the burning of the library of Alexandria, the historians Eustichius and Elmacin, both Egyptian Christians, who wrote soon after the Saracen conquest of their country, are significantly silent about the savage act. The former, a patriarch of Alexandria, could be hardly suspected of partiality to the enemies of Christianity. An order of Caliph Umar has been usually cited as evidence of the barbarous act ascribed to his general. It would have been much easier not to record that order than to suppress any historical work composed by Christian prelates who had endless possibilities of concealing their composition. A diligent examination of all relevant evidence enabled Gibbon to arrive at the following opinion on the matter: ‘The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mohammedan casuist; they expressly declare that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, and that the works of profane scientists, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful.’ (The Decline and Fall of Roman Empire)¹³ Byzantine barbarism had undone the meritorious work of the Ptolemies. The real destruction of the Alexandrian seat of learning had been the work of St. Cyril who defiled the Goddess of learning in the famous fair of Hyparia. That was already in the beginning of the 5th century.”¹⁴

It is no mere chance that for most of its 2000 years of history, Christianity not only did not inspire a spirit of learning at an extensive level, but often suppressed it. Churchmen and Crusaders were responsible for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of Greek and Muslim books. For example, in 389 AD the celebrated library of Serapis at Alexandria was ruined on the order of Archbishop Theophilus. The guiding principle of Pope Gregory was, “Ignorance is the mother of piety.” According to this principle, Gregory burned the precious Palestine Library founded by Emperor Augustus, destroyed the greater part of the writings of Livy and forbade the study of the classics. The Crusaders destroyed the splendid library of Tripoli and reduced to ashes many of the glorious centres of Saracenic art and culture. Ferdinand and Isabella put to flames all the Muslim and Jewish works they could find in Spain. Nor is it a coincidence that when science and learning did become widespread in Europe in spite of the Church, it was accompanied by a rejection or reduction of the authority of the Bible and science became completely secularised.

The story is now generally rejected as a fable and a fabrication. Let us conclude this piece with a remark by Dr. Singhal:

“Seldom in history has there been a parallel for transcribing a falsehood with such persistence, conviction, and indignation, in spite of contrary evidence.”¹⁵

And only God knows best.

1. C. Joseph Barnabas, “Religious Freedom and Human Rights,” in C. J. Nirmal (ed), Human Rights in India, Oxford University Press: N Delhi, 2000, p. 144 [back]
2. B. N. Jog, Threat of Islam: Indian Dimension, Unnati Prakashan: Mumbai: 400081, 1994, p. 428 [back]
3. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 1, 1984, p. 227 [back]
4. Encyclopedia Britannica, ibid., p. 479 [back]
5. Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, Macmillan: London, 1970, p. 166 [back]
6. Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, Goodword Books: N. Delhi, (1950), 2001, p. 54 [back]
7. Bernard Lewis, New York Review of Books, 2 September 1990 [back]
8. John M. Robertson, A Short History of Free Thought, Watts & Co: London, 1914, p. 253 [back]
9. D.P. Singhal, India and World Vol I. Civilization, Rupa and Co: London, 1993, p. 136. [back]
10. D.P. Singhal, ibid., p. 136 [back]
11. Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics, Routledge: London, (1954), 1992, p. 218 [back]
12. Colin Wilson, The Occult, Panther: London, 1984, p. 278 [back]
13. M. N. Roy, ibid., p. 64 [back]
14. M. N. Roy, ibid., p. 65 [back]
15. D.P. Singhal, ibid., p. 136 [back]