Umar (the 2nd caliph) and the Library of Alexandria.

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The Ancient Library of Alexandria:
"An explanation of the durable fascination of the Alexandrian library on our culture has been attempted by Jorge Luis Borges, the famous Argentine writer that in the collection Historia de la noche (History of the Night, 1977) dedicates a lyric to the instant in which ‘Umar commands ‘Amr Ibn al-‘Ās to destroy the great library. The medieval legend from which Borges (like Jean-Pierre Luminet) takes inspiration gives a paradoxical motivation for the caliph’s order: “If the books of the faithless conform with the holy Qur’an, they are superfluous; if not, they are undesirable."

:dts:why would he order such thing!!!, why would he destroy such valuable library!!!
 
Yes, I have read that quote, too. It is quite sad and shocking, isn’t it? I think it is a symptom of the absolutism of the conquering forces, in this case Muslims and Islam. If you think God has ordained you to wipe out every belief that isn’t your own, why would you care about destroying all that knowledge? 😦
 
I always thought that the Christians were to blame for burning down the library? Anyway, they have rebuilt it and it is AWESOME!!
 
Sam , how are you

did you read your PDf , or just the two lines you quoted ? 😃

i think that your PDF didn’t represent this story as a facts , why then you quote it as a facts ?

or may be i misunderstand the language here because of my poor language , so i will appereciate if someone corrected me 🙂

i will quote from PDF what confused me
An explanation of the durable fascination of the Alexandrian library on our
culture has been attempted by Jorge Luis Borges, the famous Argentine writer
that in the collection Historia de la noche (History of the Night, 1977) dedicates
a lyric to the instant in which 'Umar commands 'Amr Ibn al-'s to destroy the
great library.
The medieval legend from which Borges takes inspiration** gives a paradoxical motivation** for the caliphis order: if the books of the faithless conform with the holy Qurian, they are superfluous; if not, they are undesirable.
Click to expand...
what this bold statment means ? what kind of inspiration Borges had ? is it inspiration from holy ghost or something !!!
actually i don’t see any commands to burn the libirary in these words
But Borgesi re-creation of the myth is as usual for him more surprising: The faithless say that if it were to burn, / history would burn with it. They are wrong. / Unceasing human work gave birth to this / infinity of books. Ifabundant Library, / which will not perish …etc
Click to expand...
what it means that he recreate the myth as usual for him
As long as man remains on the earth, Borges says, the Library n this inventory of all human creativity n will not perish; or better, the Library, as the mythical phoenix, can die over and over again: but every death will be followed by a resurrection, thanks to the work of new generations of authors that will reintegrate its lost pages.
** This is, of course, only a provocation**
Click to expand...
i can’t understand this one either , what is that which only a provocation and what it means ?
Given the fortune of the traditions about the Alexandrian library, it can seem
somewhat contradictory to point out that the historical sources on it are
surprisingly scanty. But the truth is that we can say almost nothing certain
about it: where and how the papyrus scrolls were stored; what dimensions its
collections really had; what role the other public library of the town, the
Serapeum library, had in Alexandrian cultural life; if books continued to be
added with the same regularity after the death of Ptolemy III Euergetes, etc.
**Even the information about the end of the library refers to a space of six
centuries, from the age of Caesar to the age, as we have seen, of the prophet
Muhammad. **
Click to expand...
i just wonder how anyone can know that it was Omar who burn the libirary !!! , i think it wasn’t more than inspiration ( from holy ghost , i guess ) 😃

it’s your time then to think about the facts which have no doubts about burning of books by churchs 🙂
 
Thank you, Sam, for your attempt to show both sides of the story. The more we find out the truth of history, the more we can find peace and common ground, because God created us all the same.

I must admit I had the same problem as others, though. It wasn’ clear.

But thanks again.

Much appreciated.

Kathleen
 
Amr ibn al 'Aas conquest in 642

Several historians told varying accounts of an Arab army led by Amr ibn al 'Aas sacking the city in 642 after the Byzantine army was defeated at the Battle of Heliopolis.

The first Western account of the book destruction was in Edward Pococke’s 1663 translation of History of the Dynasties, and** it was dismissed as a hoax or propaganda as early as 1713 by Fr. Eusèbe Renaudot.** Over the centuries, numerous succeeding scholars have agreed with Fr. Renaudot’s conclusion, including Alfred J. Butler, Victor Chauvin, Paul Casanova and Eugenio Griffini.[19] More recently, in 1990, Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis argued that the original account may not be true, but that it survived over time because it was a useful account for the great twelfth century Kurdish Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin who found it necessary to break up the Fatimid caliphate’s collection of heretical Isma’ili texts in Cairo following his restoration of Sunnism to Egypt. Lewis proposes that the story of the caliph Umar’s support of a library’s destruction may have made Saladin’s actions seem more acceptable to his people.[21]

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Guys … guys… i know you are Christians and Islam is BAD BAD BAD … but why Muslims would destroy the Alexandria Library while go out of their way to translate heathen greek literature to include in the Bagdad Library!!!

Why would muslim sack the Library and go and save the life of the Coptic Orthodox Pope after he was persecuted by the Byzantines?!!

It seems that every sin that is created in the world Must be associated to Muslims .
 
The problem though with Islam is the price it paid in overtaking many peoples and land…and now with the internet…

But let us continue forward…keep dialoguing.
 
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