http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htmInteresting article... I have heard all three versions but I like how this guy takes into account other accounts...I agree with the author that it was probably Julius Caesar who destroyed the library and not Theophilus or Caliph Omar.Can you imagine what sort of understanding there would be today had this library and it's documents survived?? Wow...What say ye?
Looks like a good article. I'll have to take a look at it when I'm not so tired. You can bet that our knowledge of the ancient world would increase by what...25%-50%?...if the contents of that library had been kept intact up to this day. At the same time, the lack of such knowledge has forced historians to seek alternate routes, or perhaps to better history work, in order to answer questions. But I still wish it were around today.
Looks like a good read. I was under the impression many of its works ended up ultimately in Baghdad, then spread across the Islamic world to places like Toledo where they were then translated.
At the same time, the lack of such knowledge has forced historians to seek alternate routes, or perhaps to better history work, in order to answer questions.
Now that is a position I hadn't thought of... I would be willing to bet that by taking the "easy road" out of the equation, knowledge, for those who employ it, would increase exponentially. And think of all the arguments and debates that would never have (or would) exist if the information was so readily available.I have a professor who (and I am not so sure he is only half serious) thinks that there are records of "extraterrestrial assistance" in ancient Egypt that were destroyed in that fire.... Hmmm... 😀