Who destroyed the famed Library of Alexandria? The answer is surprisingly elusive. Richard Carrier has written a scholarly essay on the event. To quote his conclusion:
>>>No source reliably says the Library of Alexandria was destroyed, and abundant evidence confirms it continuously survived all the way into the Middle Ages. The 500s are the last century we can confirm it existed.
>>>All the evidence cited to try and argue it was destroyed before that all falls apart on inspection, being demonstrably erroneous, and contradicted by actual archeology, and by other sources more reliable. Indeed many of the claims of its destruction don’t exist in ancient sources at all, even erroneously. No ancient source says Aurelian or Diocletian had any effect on it.
>>>The only story that is hard to disprove is the Muslim destruction. The library finally does disappear from the record precisely in that century. And though there could be errors in the subsequent legend of it, that isn’t sufficient to argue it didn’t happen. But neither can we confirm with confidence that it did.
In other words, the Muslims probably did destroy it, for why else would the library disappear during that very period? Carrier also argues that the library started to decline during the preceding Christian centuries. And yes, most of the essay is an extremely boring analysis of a manuscript by notorious Church Father and heresy-hunter Epiphanius. So I summarized the important part...
Den första version jag hörde var att kristna förstörde biblioteket med argumentet att allt som står i dess böcker antingen också finns i Bibeln, och i så fall är det överflödigt, eller så finns det inte i Bibeln, och då är det felaktigt. Långt senare hörde jag precis samma sak om muslimer med skillnaden att "Bibeln" nu var ersatt med "Koranen". Nu bevarade muslimerna en rad texter från grekiska författare, även sådana som hade försvunnit i den kristna världen, så det sista argumentet är konstigt. Det konstigaste är att det funnits så många versioner, med så många skenbart exakta detaljer.
ReplyDeleteErik R
PS. Även de kristna bevarade en hal del antika texter, som ansågs ofarliga. Det tycks finnas mycket delade meningar även om hur mycket de förstörde.
ReplyDeleteCarrier är väldigt kristendomsfientlig. Han verkar mena att kristendomen mer eller mindre medvetet förstörde den hedniska romerska civilisationen, som var väldigt avancerad.
ReplyDeleteFrån Carriers essä:
ReplyDeleteOne of the oldest accounts of this tale is found in a mid-13th century Arabic work the History of Learned Men by Ibn Al-Qifti. There he reports that “a man named John the Grammarian of Alexandria in Egypt, a pupil of Severus, was a Coptic priest who was defrocked by a council in Babylon for some heresy concerning the Trinity” and when the Arabs took the city this man asked that the books in the library of Ptolemy Philadelphus “which had been guarded and preserved by kings and their successors to this day” be given to the city’s scholars. The commander of the army wrote to Caliph Umar about this, who replied: “Concerning the books you mentioned, if what is written in them agrees with the Book of God, they are not required; if it disagrees, they are not desired. Therefore, destroy them.” So the books were burned as fuel for the city baths over the next six months, and the library was no more. Did this happen?
Den ursprungliga källan till historien om att alla böcker ska brännas, vissa för att de bekräftar en helig skrift, andra för att de förnekar den, handlar alltså om Koranen. Observera också att källan verkar vara muslimsk!