A place touched by so many of the great figures of history, including its namesake Alexander the Great, Alexandria is a city in Egypt that has been the epicenter of book history because of its infamous Library. “The creation of this Library was credited to Ptolemy II Philadelphus, son of Alexander the Great, who founded Alexandria in 332 BCE.” (H) The Great Library of Alexandria, herein referred to as simply the Library, was the greatest archive of recorded human knowledge in the Ancient world and “at its height, the library held nearly 750,000 scrolls.” (Survivor) Egypt, even before the founding of Alexandria had already been a large influence in the history of reading and writing as the source of papyrus paper made from harvesting the papyrus reed stalks that grew on the riverbeds of the Nile. (Al- Madah, pg. 6)

The founding of the Library itself, which was the encompassment of more than two smaller libraries, is ambiguous. “It is believed that around 295 BC, the scholar and orator Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled governor of Athens, convinced Ptolemy I Soter to establish the Library. Demetrius envisioned a library that would house a copy of every book in the world, an institution to rival those of Athens itself. Subsequently, under the patronage of Ptolemy I, Demetrius rganized the construction of the ‘Temple of the Muses’ or ‘the Musaeum’, from where our word ‘museum’ is derived.” (Haughton) Because there are very few recorded documents of an official one library being created, the sections of the library each have their own histories.
“What we do know is that the Library contained a massive amount of scrolls (ancient books). Some estimates place the amount of scrolls contained in the library between 500,000 and 700,000. By comparison, Trajan, the largest library in Rome only contained approximately 20,000 scrolls. In addition to the wealth of information stored there, some of the greatest minds in history made this library their home. Famous figures such as Euclid, Eratosthenes, Archimedes and Galen were once part of the staff of 30-50 scholars who resided at the library.” (H)

Who was to blame for the destruction of the library through flames, and why did they do it? There are three main perpetrators that historians have agreed upon, Julius Caesar, once emperor of the Roman Empire, Theophilus a patriarch of Alexandria and lastly, Caliph Omar of Baghdad. (El-Abbadi, pg. 73) Caesar’s case in this part of history was that he was pursuing Pompey into Egypt in 48BC when the Egyptian fleet had cut him off. Because of sheer numbers and location, Caesar ordered the ships to be set aflame in the harbor. This decision however, also resulted in a part of the city burning down, the area where the Library was located. (Canfora) The second person who is also put to blame for the burning was Theophilus who from 385-412AD, was the Patriarch of the city.“ During his reign the Temple of Serapis was converted into a Christian Church (probably around 391 AD) and it is likely that many documents were destroyed then. The Temple of Serapis was estimated to hold about ten percent of the overall Library of Alexandria’s holdings.” (Chesser) The last individual who also allegedly holds blame is Caliph Omar of Baghdad, when the Muslims took over Alexandria in 640 AD it was his decision on how to deal with the Library. “Upon learning of “a great library containing all the knowledge of the world” the conquering general supposedly asked Caliph Omar for instructions. The Caliph has been quoted as saying of the Library’s holdings, “they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous.” So, allegedly, all the texts were destroyed by using them as tinder for the bathhouses of the city.” (Chesser)

The library was extremely significant because it held everything from intellectual writings, to fiction, to manuals and inventory lists; it was a vault of knowledge. Todays modern version of the Great Library of Alexandria can be found at http://www.bibalex.org/Home/Default_EN.aspx