Who destroyed Alexandria Library? by VA Mohamad Ashrof

Ptolemy II, who became the ruler of Egypt after Alexander the Great in the third century BC, was a great patron of learning, and founded a library in Alexandria, Egypt, which contained about 5,00,000 books on different subjects. It is this collection that is known in history as the great library in Alexandria.

It has been alleged that this library was burned down by Amr bin Aas at the behest of the Second Caliph, Umar. The story goes to state that Amr fed the numerous bath furnaces of the city with the volumes of the Alexandrian library. The story also relates the oft-quoted remark allegedly made by Caliph Umar (ruled: 634-644) when he consented to the destruction of the library, "If these writing of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed". It was, the story continues, thereupon, decided that the books were contrary to the Quran and the whole library was burned down without even opening the books.

Equating the burning of Alexandria Library with that of Nazi policy, Joseph Barnabas writes, "the arguments of Caliph Umar and the Nazi book burning are not without explanations."1 A Hindutva theorist, B.N. Jog, was more emphatic and clear: "Many people are surprised that Caliph Umar burnt down the huge and rich library of Constantinople. The urge for him to do so was, however, provided by his religion."2

Encyclopedia Britanica says that the Alexandrian Library had, in fact, been destroyed much earlier, in the fourth century A.D, long before the advent of Islam: "The library survived the disintegration of Alexander's empire (first century BC) and continued to exist under Roman rule until the third century AD."3 The truth is that one half of this library was burnt by Julius Caesar in 47 BC. In the third century, Alexandria came under the domination of Christians. 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 DP 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

MN 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 of 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 me 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

References:

(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.

(2) B. N. Jog, Threat of Islam: Indian Dimension, Unnati Prakashan: Mumbai: 400081, 1994, P. 428.

(3) Ency. Britannica, Vol. 1, 1984, P. 227.

(4) Ency. Britannica, Ibid, P.479.

(5) Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, Macmillan: London, 1970, P.166.

(6) Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, Goodword Books: N. Delhi, (1950), 2001, P. 54.

(7) Bernard Lewis, New York Review of Books, 2 September 1990.

(8) John M. Robertson, A Short History of Free Thought, Watts & Co: London, 1914, P. 253. (9) D. P. Singhal, India and World Vol I. Civilization, Rupa and Co: London, 1993, P. 136. (10) D. P. Singhal, Ibid, P. 136.

(11)Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics, Routledge: London, (1954), 1992, P. 218.

(12) Colin Wilson, The Occult, Panther: London, 1984, P. 278.

(13) M. N. Roy, Ibid, P. 64.

(14) M. N. Roy, Ibid, P.65.

(15) D. P. Singhal, Ibid, P.136.

Learning Institutions in Islam

Learning institutions in Muslims lands took a variety of shapes and sizes and ranged from Madrasas, khans, Mosques, and academies of diverse sorts. These institutions, as Scott notes [1],

‘Composed voluminous treatises on surgery and medicine. They bestowed upon the stars the Arabic names which still cover the map of the heavens. Above the lofty station of the muezzin, as he called the devout to prayer, were projected against the sky the implements of science to whose uses religion did not refuse the shelter of her temples,—the gnomon, the astrolabe, the pendulum clock, and the armillary sphere.'[2]

It is already known that institutions such as al-Qayrawan, al-Qarawiyyin and al-Azhar, above all, were amongst the first universities throughout history. Another great body of institutions initiated by the Muslims were the Madrasas, or colleges [3], of which Ibn Jubayr (d. 614H/1217CE) counted thirty on his visit to Baghdad. Before we take a close look at a Madrasa by the name of al-Mustansiriyah [4], we will first receive a background of how learning institutions thrived in Muslim lands.

Background

Following the establishment of Seljuk rule, Muslim lands experienced a considerable rise in the number of scholarly institutions, which were largely sponsored by the powerful and wealthy elite. Hence, in Iraq it was the Vizier Nizam al-Mulk (d. 485H/1092CE) that both founded and took responsibility for the spread of Madrasas within his jurisdiction. Originally from Tus, he is the compatriot and friend of al-Ghazali, who himself taught at the great Madrasa, al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad. Al-Mulk founded the Madrasa system towards 459H/1066CE within Baghdad, and was then responsible for the spread of such institutions to the more Eastern parts of the Muslim World. According to Abu Shamah, ‘the schools founded by Nizam al-Mulk are very famous all over the world. No single village lacks one of these schools.' [5] The state exercised some supervision over teaching, such as that at the Nizamiyya, in which the permission of the Caliph [6] had to be obtained before a teaching post was occupied.

Following Nizam al-Mulk, it became a practice, or rather a competition between rulers, to build more Madrasas. Nur ad-Din, who ascended to the throne in 541H/1148CE, founded many such institutions in Damascus and the other large cities of his kingdom. In Egypt, it was Salah ad-Din who founded five colleges in Cairo, followed by over twenty six other such Madrasas that were established by both his followers and later Mamluk sultans [7]. Individuals, too, did the same. A Madrasa for women was established in Cairo in 634H/1237CE by the daughter of the Mamluk Sultan Tahir, while Khatun, the daughter of Malik Ashraf constructed a women's Madrasa in Damascus, yet another such Madrasa was founded by Zamurrad, wife of Nasir ad-Din of Aleppo [8]. The spread of the Madrasa was so rapid that at some point in the medieval times, according to Tawtah [9], there were 73 colleges in Damascus, 41 in Jerusalem, 40 in Baghdad, 14 in Aleppo, 13 in Tripoli, 9 in al-Mawsil and 74 in Cairo, in addition to numerous institutions in other cities. A later author, writing around 1,500, counted about 150 Madrasas in Damascus alone [10]. At some point, the whole of the Muslim land with the exception of Spain and Sicily was just a wide, dense network of colleges, of varying sizes, providing education to tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of pupils, at a time, when education in Europe was just the privilege of a minority of clergy or the top elite, most certainly not exceeding the few hundreds.

Jerusalem had a great number of famed institutions, described in great detail by the late medieval scholar, Qadi Mudjir ad-Din (d. 918H/1521CE) [11]. Inside al-Aqsa Mosque, just near the women's area is the Madrasa Farisiya founded by Emir Faris ad-Din al-Baky. There were also the Madrasas Nahriya and Nasiriya. The latter was named after the Jerusalem scholar, Sheikh Nasr, before it became known as the Ghazaliya, after the famed scholar al-Ghazali, as it was a place both of his residence and employment. Outside of al-Aqsa Mosque were the Qataniya, the Fakriya, al-Baladiya and the Tankeziya. The latter, says Ibn Mudjir, is an immense Madrasa, situated on the Khatt road (it is also worth noting that the founder of this Madrasa Emir Tankiz Nasri, vice ruler of Syria, was also responsible for building the aqueduct for the water supply of Jerusalem). A number of the Madrasas within and around al-Aqsa Mosque were built by Turkish women. For example, the Madrasa Othmania was constituted in waqf by a woman belonging to one of the greatest families of the country, Isfahan Shah Khatun in the year 920H/1523CE. Earlier, in 751H/1354CE, the Khatuniya Madrasa was constituted in waqf by Oghl Khatun, daughter of Shams ad-Din Mohammed ibn Sayf ad-Din of Baghdad. This Madrasa itself was financed by the local businesses [12].

Shalaby offers an excellent description of one such illustrious Madrasa: al-Nuriyyah al-Kubra in Damascus [13] founded by Nur ad-Din, which was described by Ibn Jubair as one of the best colleges in the world [14]. Here follows the summary of Shalaby's description:

‘the school is situated in Khatt al-Khawwasin which is now called `al-Khayyarin', about half a mile south west of the Umayyad Mosque. The school has a `monumental' entrance: an arch with an outer door, and a broad passage leading to the court with a second door halfway along. The lintel of the outer door is adorned with the endowment tablet. The school had its Iwan, which then, was the most important place in the Muslim school. It is the equivalent of the modern lecture room, and there where the halaqat were held. Not far from the Iwan was the Mosque, which took the significant place in a medieval school. The Mosque was also open to other worshippers, and it was thus normal that it was remote from the Iwan. The school also included eight lodges for the students, and the caretaker's lodgings, the latrines, and also a kitchen and dining hall, the food store, and the general store for the building. This Madrasa, in most parts, still stands up to now.'[15]

Al-Mustansiriyah

Figure 2. A Qur'an manuscript written in Kufe script and early sample of a paper. Picture copy right from: 1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World. Chief Ed. by. Salim T S Al-Hassani, Manchester: FSTC, 2006.

Madrasas varied in size and layout, some were small with one or two classrooms, whilst others were much larger, and with huge libraries, and facilities and large lecture halls. As far as al-Mustansiriyah is concerned, according to Dodge, it was the college which, at the time, ‘most closely resembled a university.' Two good descriptions, taken from original sources: Yaqut [16] and Naji [17], by Dodge [18] and Nakosteen [19] which are presented together below:

‘The Mustansiriyah was founded in 631 H/1234 A.D by Caliph al-Mustansir. He was the penultimate Abbasid Caliph, the father of al-Mustassim, who was later to be put to death by Hulagu. It was located immediately south of the Gharabah gate, on the shore of the Tigris. It was built as a large two storied structure. In its outward appearance, and its internal sumptuousness and wealth, the Mustansiriyah surpassed all that was previously seen in Islam. It was oblong in shape with a great open court in the centre. Around the courtyard there were rooms for teachers and students, opening out to arched cloisters. Nearby, the Great Mosque of the Palace (Jami al-Kasr) was also restored by Mustansir, who also restored the four platforms (Dikkah) on the Western side of the pulpit. There, the students sat and held their disputations after the Friday public prayers. The remains of this Mosque still exist to the present.

‘At the Mustansiriyah, professors received monthly salaries, and the three hundred students received each one gold dinar a month. The college had large lecture halls, where students were taught by a head professor and his assistants. There were also small classes, tutorial like, of a teacher for ten students. Students learnt subjects that included the traditional linguistic, legal and religious subjects, but also arithmetic, land surveying, history, poetry, hygiene, the care of animals and plants and other phases of natural history. There was also a course in medicine with a physician in charge.

‘The Mustansiriyah included major facilities. It had a very large library, manned by a librarian with an assistant and attendants. According to Ibn al-Furat, the library (Dar al-Kutub) had rare books dealing with various sciences, and made available easily to students, either for consultation, or copying. Pens and paper were supplied, and so were lamps and due provision of oil. The students also received medical care and financial aid, in addition to free tuition. Daily rations of bread and meat were also provided to all inmates by a large kitchen. Somewhere in the building, were store rooms and bathing facilities (hamam). Also attached to the college was a hospital with a dispensary and rooms for teaching medicine. One of the rarities of the Mustansiriyah was its famous clock, set in a design of the heavens, with twelve doors, each opening to announce the hour.

Figure 3. A sulus, nesih and rik'a calligraphy by Halim Özyazici (1898-1964). Muhittin Serin's Hat Sanati ve Meshur Hattatlar (Calligraphy and Eminent Calligraphers), Istanbul 2004.

‘The Caliph al-Mustansir himself took great interest and passion in the work of `his' institution, that he inspected it nearly every day. He also had a belvedere (Manzarah) overlooking the college, with a window opening upon one of the college halls, from where he watched the building, and heard the lectures of the professors and the disputations of the students. Just a century after its foundation, Ibn Battuta, who visited Baghdad in AH 727 (1327), speaks of the magnificence of the place, which by miracle, escaped the Mongol sacking of Baghdad (in 1258). He states that lectures were still provided. Twelve years after him, the geographer Hamd Allah also refers to the Mustansiriyah as the most beautiful building in Baghdad.

‘The Mustansiriyah appears to have stood intact for many centuries, but surely not by the mid-18th. Then, when Niebuhr visited Baghdad in 1750, he found that the ancient kitchen of the college was being used as a weighing house. Today, only ruins of it remain.'

‘The age of Arabian learning,' Gibbon observes, ‘continued about five hundred years, till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun of science has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined.' [20]

Conclusion

Given Islam's love for knowledge and its elevation of scholars and writers to exalted positions, the evolution of a publishing industry was a foregone conclusion at the advent of Islam [21]. Within one hundred years after the advent of Islam, a sophisticated and highly integrated book industry was flourishing in the Muslim world. Techniques were evolved for each stage of book production: composition, copying, illustrating, binding, publishing, storing and selling. Reading books, as well as hearing them being dictated, became one of the major occupations and pastimes. In certain major cities, such as Baghdad and Damascus, almost half the population was involved in some aspect of book production and publication. However, book production was both an industry and an institution, an institution with its own customs and practices, its own checks against fraud and misrepresentation and, above all, an institution that ensured that learning and books were not the prerogative of a select few but were available to all those who had the desire. It also ensured that the scholars and authors themselves also benefited, both economically and in terms of recognition from their work [22].

REFERENCES

[1] S. P. Scott: History of the Moorish Empire in Europe; Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1904, vol 3; p. 468.

[2] Ibid, p. 468.

[3] For a summary on the role and impact of the Madrasa: -George Makdisi: The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West; Edinburgh University Press, 1990. -B. Dodge: Muslim Education in the Medieval Times; the Middle East Institute; Washington D.C; 1962.

[4] Ibn Jubayr in J. Pedersen, The Arabic Book, translated by G. French, Princeton-New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 128.

[5] Quoted in A. Shalaby. History of Muslim education, Beirut: Dar Al Kashaf, 1954, p. 58.

[6] A. S. Tritton: Muslim Education in the Middle Ages. London: Luzac and Co. Ltd., 1957, p. 91.

[7] Bayard Dodge: Muslim Education in Medieval times; op cit; p. 22.

[8] S. M Hossain: A Plea for a Modern Islamic university; op cit; p. 100.

[9] Bayard Dodge, Muslim Education in Medieval Times; Washington D.C.: The Middle East Institute, 1962, p. 23.

[10] J. Pedersen: The Arabic Book, p. 128.

[11] Mudjir Eddin: Al-Euns al-jalil bi Tarikh el-Qods wa'l Khalil, translated into French as Histoire de Jerusalem et Hebron, by H. Sauvaire; Paris; Ernest Leroux; 1875; and 1926; pp. 140 fwd.

[12] Mudjir Eddin: Al-Euns (Histoire de Jerusalem); P. 145.

[13] A. Shalaby: History, op cit, pp. 65-67.

[14] Ibn Jubayr: Al-Rihla, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, Tr. R.J.C. Broadhurst, Jonathan Cape, 1952 , p. 284).

[15] A. Shalaby: History, op cit, pp 65-7.

[16] Yaqut: Irshad al-Arib ila Ma'arifat al-Adib, or Muja'am al-Udaba (Dictionary of learned men,), edt. D.S. Margoliouth (Luzac, 1907 ff), Vol.V, p. 231. Vol VI. p. 343.

[17] Ma'ruf, Naji, al-Madrassah al-Mustansiryah, Nadi al-Muthanna, Baghdad, 1935.

[18] B. Dodge: Muslim education, op cit, pp 23-4.

[19] M. Nakosteen: History of Islamic Origins of Western Education: 800-1350. Boulder-Colorado: University of Colorado Press, 1964, pp. 50-1.

[20] E. Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. J. M. Dent, 1962, vol 6; 1925 ed; pp. 28.

[21] Z. Sardar and M.W. Davies: Distorted Imagination; op cit; p. 97.

[22] Ibid.

Women and learning in Islam

Quoted from S.P. Scott in the History of the Moorish Empire in Europe; 3 vols; J.B. Lippincott Company, 1904.p.447-48;

…the eminent rank attained by many women in the literary profession. The female relatives of the khalifs and courtiers vied with each other in the patronage and cultivation of letters. Ayesha, the daughter of Prince Ahmed, excelled in rhyme and oratory; her speeches aroused the tumultuous enthusiasm of the grave philosophers of Cordoba, her library was one of the finest and most complete in the kingdom.

Valada, a princess of the Almohads, whose personal charms were not inferior to her talents, was renowned for her knowledge of poetry and rhetoric; her conversation was remarkable for its depth and brilliancy; and, in the academic contests of the capital which attracted the learned and the eloquent from every quarter of the Peninsula, she never failed, whether in prose or in poetical composition, to distance all competitors.

Algasania and Safia, both of Seville, were also distinguished for poetical and oratorical genius; the latter was unsurpassed for the beauty and perfection of her calligraphy; the splendid illuminations of her manuscripts were the despair of most accomplished artists of the age. The literary attainments of Miriam, the gifted daughter of Al-Faisuli, were famous throughout the Peninsula, the caustic wit and satire of her epigrams were said to have been unrivalled.

Umm-al-Saad was famous for her familiarity with Muslim tradition. Labana of Cordoba was thoroughly versed in the exact sciences; her talents were equal to the solution of the most complex geometrical and algebraic problems, and her vast acquaintance with general literature obtained her the important employment of private secretary to the Khalif al-Hakem II.