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The news released by theEgyptian government,

that the international projectto rebuild the old library ofAlexandria was nearing com-pletion, must be classed notmerely as an item of specialistinterest, but as an event ofworld historical importance.For, the Alexandria librarywas not merely one amongmany ancient institutions, tobe commemorated for thesake of antiquity: it was amodel of the educationalinstitutions required to creategeniuses, today as then.

Throughout history,mankind has created institu-tions of culture which proveto be the crucibles for scien-tific advance, among them,the Academy at Athens, thegreat Madrasas of the IslamicRenaissance, the cathedral schools ofmedieval Europe, Groote’s Brethren ofthe Common Life, the Humboldt educa-tion system, the Ecole Polytechnique ofGaspard Monge, to name only a few.And, from earliest times, the greatestadvances in social progress have beenassociated with civilizations whose rulersplaced emphasis on the importance oflibraries: It was through the establish-ment of libraries that Greek culture radi-ated learning to broader circles.

In Islam, the great caliphs of theAbbasid dynasty (A.D. 750-1258) dedi-cated enormous sums of money andtime to collecting books. The idea was,that in order for a society to advance, itmust have at its disposal the best prod-ucts of the human mind, from anywherein the world, any religious tradition, andfrom any period of history. Thus, thelegendary Baghdad caliph Harun alRashid and his follower al Mamun, sentemissaries throughout the world, to findmanuscripts of philosophical, scientific,

and other works. So, too, the immenselyrich culture of Andalusia in MuslimSpain, was largely a product of the inde-fatigable efforts of leaders like Abd alRahman III (A.D. 912-961) and AlHakim II (A.D. 961-976), to collect thefruits of learning in central locations, forscholars and ordinary citizens to benefitfrom. Similarly, the advances of Renais-sance Italy would be unthinkable with-out the collection of manuscripts by suchhumanists as Francesco Petrarca and theprotagonists of the Council of Florence.

This practice goes back to the ancientworld, to Greece, and the library atAlexandria was its most illustrious exam-ple. But it was not the only one, nor thefirst. Book collecting was widespreadamong intellectuals and political figuresin ancient Greece. Even the Atheniantyrant Pisistratus (605-527 B.C.) was alover of music and culture, and wasreputed to be the first to commission agroup to assemble and edit the works ofthe great epic poet Homer. He is also

reported to have been thefounder of the first publiclibrary in Athens. It wasknown that the great drama-tist Euripides (480-406 B.C.)had a large collection ofbooks, although details aboutthem are lacking. Plato (427-348 B.C.) collected manu-scripts during his many trav-els to Magna Graecia, and hisstudent Clearchus (d. 353 B.C.)was reported to have foundeda library. In Pergamum,where a school of the Stoicswas founded, the library,founded by Eumenes II, wasknown as the Pergameniana,and boasted 200,000 rolls ofpapyrus or parchment. (Fromthe second century B.C.,Pergamum was the center ofthe production of parchment,which was the writing materi-

al made from the skins of animals, usedto produce books.) Antioch was anothersite of a great library in the ancientworld, which, under Antiochus IV,became an intellectual center.

But the greatest library of all was thatat Alexandria.

The Vision of Alexander the Great

It was Alexander, rightly named theGreat, who, after having conqueredEgypt, undertook to found a city bear-ing his name—as he would dothroughout Asia—which was to be acommercial crossroads between Eastand West, as well as a cultural and sci-entific center of the world. Alexandermade the momentous decision on Jan-uary 20, in the year 331 B.C., when hesaw the site at Rakotis, in the Niledelta, where the island of Pharos jut-ted out into the Mediterranean. Heordered his architect Dinocrates tochart out a plan for the city. In 323B.C., after Alexander’s untimely death,

A Dream of Alexander the Great, at the Crossroads of East and West

The Alexandria Library Will Be Reborn

Scholars consult scrolls in one of the halls of the ancient library ofAlexandria, in this Nineteenth-century illustration.

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the satrapy of Egypt fell into thehands of Ptolemy, and it was underthe Ptolemies—Ptolemy I Soter (323-283 B.C.) and his son Ptolemy II (285-246 B.C.)—that Alexandria city wasdeveloped.

The city, which was to become thelargest in the Greek world, was dividedinto three districts, or quarters, populat-ed, respectively, by Egyptians, Greeks,and Jews. Graced with ample wideavenues and magnificent marble andstone buildings, the city was consideredindestructible. There were four greatbuildings which stood out above the rest.The first was the Soma, which was builtto house the body of Alexander,embalmed and encased in gold. Nextwas the Serapeum, with the Temple ofSerapis for worship. Then, there was themuseum, located in the Greek quarterknown as the Brucheion. This was actu-ally a center of study, with lecture rooms,galleries, and housing for hundreds ofstudents, who could reside there andstudy. The students undertook to copymanuscripts, to edit them, to study them,and to conduct research of their own.The institution which provided them thematerial, was the famed library, theAlexandriana. The librarywas organized in ten largehalls, each of which corre-sponded to a branch oflearning. In each hall,there were thousands ofmanuscripts, carefully cat-alogued and classified.

Among the manyaccounts in the ancientworld of the building ofthe fabulous library andmuseum, there are nu-merous divergences as towho actually constructedit, whether Ptolemy Soter,under the recommenda-tion of Demetrius ofPhaleron, in 295 B.C., orPtolemy II, “Philadel-phus,” his son and succes-sor. According to the ver-sion provided by Epipha-nius (A.D. 320-403 ):

“Now, the successor ofthe first Ptolemy [Soter]and the second of the

kings of Alexandria was, as we said,Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus. Hewas a lover of all that is beautiful and ofliterature, and built a library in thatsame city of Alexandria in the Bruchi-um so-called . . . which he placed underthe charge of one Demetrius ofPhalarene. Him he bade collect thebooks in existence in every quarter ofthe world, and he wrote letters impor-tuning every king and governor onearth to send ungrudgingly the books[that were within his realm or govern-ment]; I mean the works of poets andprose writers, orators and sophists,physicians, professors of medicine, histo-rians, and so on.

“One day, when the business wasproceeding apace and the books werebeing assembled from all quarters, theking asked his librarian how many vol-umes had [already] been collected in thelibrary. He made answer to the king andsaid: ‘There are already 54,800, more orless. But I hear that there is still a greatmass of writings in the world, amongthe Ethiopians and Indians, the Persiansand Elamites and Babylonians, theAssyrians and Chaldaeans, among theRomans also and the Phoenicians, the

Syrians, and them of Hellas. . . . Thereare, moreover, with them of Jerusalemand Judaea certain divine books of theprophets, which tell of God and the cre-ation of the world and contain all otherteaching that is for the general good.Wherefore, O king, if it is thy Majesty’spleasure to send for these, also do thouwrite to the doctors in Jerusalem, andthey will send them to thee.’ ”1

This, Ptolemy did. According to anaccount given in an annotation in theFifteenth-century parchment text of awork by the Roman playwright Plautus,known as the Plautine scolium fromCaecius, the following occurred:

“Alexander of Aetolia, Lycophron ofChalcis, and Zenodotus of Ephesus, atthe request of King Ptolemy Philadel-phus by surname, who wonderfullyfavored the talents and the fame oflearned men, gathered together thepoetical books of Greek authorship andarranged them in order: Alexander thetragedies, Lycophron the comedies, andZenodotus the poems of Homer and ofother illustrious poets. For that king,well acquainted with the philosophersand other famous authors, having hadthe volumes sought out at the expense of

the royal munificence allover the world as far aspossible by Demetrius ofPhaleron (and othercounsellors), made twolibraries, one outside thepalace, the other withinit. In the outer library,there were 42,800 vol-umes; in the inner,palace library, 400,000mixed volumes and90,000 single volumesand digests, according toCallimachus, a man ofthe court and royallibrarian, who also wrotethe titles for the severalvolumes. Eratosthenes,not very much later thecustodian of the samelibrary, also makes thissame statement. Theselearned volumes, which[Demetrius] was able toobtain, were of all peopleand languages; and theCut-away architectural model shows interior plan of the new library.

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king caused them to be translated intohis own language, with the utmost dili-gence, by excellent interpreters.”2

Ptolemy Philadelphus, who succeed-ed his father in 284 B.C., ruled over avast empire, in a period of flourishingtrade. He inaugurated vast infrastruc-ture projects, promoted the constructionof new cities, and encouraged immigra-tion. During his rule, the empire count-ed about seven million inhabitants, liv-ing in 33,000 cities andvillages. Ptolemy’steachers, who imbuedhim with a love ofclassical learning, hadbeen the poet Philetas,the grammarian Zen-odotos of Ephesus,later the first head ofthe library, and thephilosopher Straton,who taught him Greekand the sciences. Ptole-my Philadelphus fol-lowed the example ofAlexander in hisencouragement of nat-ural sciences. It is related, that he sentemissaries abroad, in search of unusualanimals, which he wanted brought backto Alexandria for study. His envoystravelled to India and throughout theArab world, and brought back not onlyanimals, but in-depth reports on thelands and customs they observed.

This great library became the centerof learning of the world for over ninehundred years, and, in particular, arepository of the great accomplishmentsof Classical Greece. It attracted thegreatest minds of Hellenistic culture likea magnet, minds like Straton, the comicpoet Philemon (c. 361-262 B.C.), thegeometer Euclid (fl. c. 300 B.C.), thephysician Herophilus, Theodoros, thephilosopher Hegesias of Cyrene, thepoet Callimachus (c. 305-240 B.C.), hispupil Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.), andmany more. Among the librarians saidto have been appointed to supervise thegreat institution, were Zenodotus, thetragic poet Alexander of Aetolia, Calli-machus, and Eratosthenes. Othersincluded Apollonius of Alexandria, thelexicographer Aristophanes of Byzan-tium (257-180 B.C.), and Aristarchus of

Samothrace (c. 217-145 B.C.). And,because of the library, Alexandriabecame a center radiating the heritage ofClassical (i.e., Platonist) philosophy andscience throughout the Greek-speakingMediterranean, in the years precedingand following the birth of Christ—asreflected in both the works of the Jewishphilosopher Philo of Alexandria, andthe New Testament Gospel of John andEpistles of Paul.

From the time of the reign of Ptole-my II, the king himself was an integralpart of the intellectual process centeredin the library. It is reported thatPhiladelphus, eager to expand his learn-ing, went to listen to the lectures givenby the scholars, and, like his father andAlexander, organized literary competi-tions.3 Under his son and successor,Ptolemy Euergetes (246-221 B.C.), thistradition was carried forward, as theruler attracted more men of learning tothe city, and actively participated in the

research activity they carried out. It wasin the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, thatthe great Eratosthenes was invited toAlexandria, from Athens. He arrived in228 or 226 B.C., and took on the respon-sibility of librarian. Eratosthenes, whowas renowned as a grammarian, poet,philosopher, historian, and mathemati-cian—indeed, revered as a “secondPlato,”—conducted research, experi-ments, wrote, and taught, until his

death in 196 B.C.4

The Ptolemies’dogged determinationto make Alexandria thecenter of learning, ledthem to send emissariesworldwide in search ofmanuscripts. PtolemyPhiladelphus pur-chased the volumes inthe library of Aristotle,as well as various ver-sions of the Homericepics. In fact, he boughtso many works, that hehad to enlarge thelibrary, to accommo-

date them, and in 250 B.C., new roomswere made available in the Serapis tem-ple. It is related, that in their zealoussearch for knowledge, they would bor-row famous manuscripts—for example,Ptolemy Physikon managed to get origi-nals of the plays of Aeschylus, Sopho-cles, and Euripides—and have themcopied, only to send back to the ownernot the original, but the copy! The first200,000 rolls were collected byDemetrius of Phaleron, according to theFirst-century B.C. Jewish historian Jose-phus. And the number increased, as thePlautine scolium documents, to 532,800.Later, the number was reported to be700,000. Among these were large num-bers of translations, including the trans-lations into Greek of the Hebrew holytexts, the Old Testament. It is also relat-ed, that Euergetes II, in his zeal to main-tain the primacy of the Alexandrialibrary, forbade the export of papyrus,hoping thereby to limit the trade inwritings. It was as a result of this embar-go, that his competitors in Pergamuminvented parchment.5

The books, or rolls of texts, werecarefully catalogued in the immense

Dynasty founder Ptolemy I Soter, a general of Alexander’s army (top). His son,Ptolemy II Philadelphus (left). Cleopatra,

last of Egypt’s ruling Ptolemies (right).

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library. Callimachus, as librarian,undertook the task of organizing bio-graphical and bibliographical tables ofthe works of poetry and prose. It isreported that Callimachus produced awork on the Museum, now lost; a“Table and Register of Dramatic Poets,chronologically from the earliest times”;and, “Tables of all those who were emi-nent in any kind of literature, and oftheir writings,” the first comprehensivehistory of literature, in 120 volumes.6

The mere existence of such works byCallimachus attests to the character ofthe Alexandria library, as a highly orga-nized center, where virtually everythingknown to exist in literature, history, phi-losophy, and sciences, was available,along with supplementary critical andbibliographical aids.

How the Library Was Destroyed

That such an institution could come intobeing, flourish, and grow, was due tothe efforts of political and intellectualleaders who fully understood the crucialsignificance of the spread of knowledge,as the precondition for social and eco-nomic progress and stability. By thesame token, it was thanks to the person-al depravity and political wretchednessof later political leaders, in the RomanEmpire and later, that the great libraryand museum were destroyed.

There are many historical versions ofwhat happened to the library, at timescontradictory. But what can be ascer-tained, for certain, is that the first seri-ous blows to it came from theworst of the Roman emperors.

The scene had been set,from the reign of PtolemyPhilopater to Ptolemy Euer-getes II (221-116 B.C.), for dis-aster, as the Ptolemies, thoughostensibly still committed topatronizing science and thearts, themselves fell into deca-dence. As a result of misrule,tyranny and corruption, socialunrest spread, and open fac-tionalization between Alexan-dria and Rome emerged fol-lowing the death of Ptolemy EuergetesII in 116 B.C.. This climaxed in 48 B.C.,when Julius Caesar arrived in Alexan-dria, to battle Pompey and Cleopatra. In

the ensuing war between Caesar and theAlexandrian fleet, fires ravaged the city.According to the account of Dion Kas-sios: “Now, there were battles by dayand by night, and many buildings wentup in smoke: the naval and other arse-nals, the grain storehouse, and thelibrary, the richest and grandest of thatday, so it is reported, was burned to theground.”

To which the historian Geord Klip-pel adds: “On this occasion, 400,000 bookscrolls, along with the gracious hallswhere they were housed, fell victim tothe flames within a few short hours, andworld literature suffered an irreplaceableloss, which is all the more painful for us,because with this destruction in Alexan-dria of so many invaluable works ofantiquity, the most important sources forour history were lost forever.”8

Cleopatra, who was reportedly well

educated in Greek, Latin, Egyptian,Ethiopian, and other Eastern languages,knew the value of the library which hadbeen destroyed, and, after the assassina-tion of Caesar, prevailed upon MarkAntony to transfer 200,000 volumeswhich were housed in the library atPergamum, to Alexandria.

Peace was reestablished after thecivil wars under the reign of Octavian(Emperor Augustus), and the librarywas rehabilitated. The fame attached tothe name of Alexandria remained such,that virtually all the Roman emperorstried, in one way or another, to presentthemselves as protectors of learning.Even the notorious tyrant Tiberius(ruled A.D. 14-37) tried to profile him-self as a lover of the sciences, and wrotepoems in various languages. Theemperor Claudius (ruled A.D. 41-54)supported the library, and evenenlarged it. A scholar of Greek,Claudius also arranged for lectures tobe held in the museum on Etruscan andCarthaginian history.9 Even the psy-chotic Nero put himself forth as afriend of the arts, not only defendingthem, but aspiring to be a poet himself.The same can be said of Vespasian andTitus, Trajan and Hadrian.

The turn for the worse occurredunder Caracalla (ruled A.D. 211-217).This bloody tyrant, who traversed hisprovinces, plundering and killing as hewent, was made the subject of ridiculeby the Alexandrians, in a series of poemsand stories.10 To teach them a lesson,

Caracalla proceeded into thecity, and gave the order tohis troops to enter housesand slaughter everyoneindiscriminately. One ac-count has it, that he enteredAlexandria under the pre-text of wanting to payhomage to Alexander. Hemade great show of respectfor the city’s founder, by vis-iting the Soma, and thenwent to the Temple of Ser-apis, allegedly to worship.Caracalla ordered all the

youth of the city to line up in phalanxformation, according to age and size,because, he said, he wished to admirethem. Instead, he gave the order to his

Emperors of Rome ruled Egypt andAlexandria after the Ptolemies. Augustus,

first Roman Emperor (top). Caracalla(left). Diocletian (right).

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troops, to slaughter the unarmed youth,and plunder the city. Blood ran throughthe streets in rivers. The library sur-vived, but barely. It was reported, later,to be standing, but with no occupants.

Further devastation occurred at thehand of Zenobia in A.D. 270, and in 295,Diocletian laid siege to the city, slaugh-tering the people and burning the build-ings. Diocletian gave the order to seekout what books remained and destroythem by fire.

Under Theodosius the Great (A.D. 375-395), the wave of destructionwhich swept over Alexandria movedunder the pretext of eliminating pagan-ism. With the Edict of Theodosius, itwas decreed that all the temples andpagan idols had to be destroyed. Thisincluded not only the Temple of Ser-apis, but, apparently, also the libraryand its works, which were eliminated inA.D. 389. Three hundred thousand vol-umes were stolen or destroyed, and themembers of the museum were forcedeither to embrace Christianity or toflee.11 Thus, three hundred years later,when the Arabs arrived under ‘Amr ibnal-’As, and the authority of ‘Umr ibn al-Khittab, conquering Egypt and Alexan-dria in about A.D. 642-46, there werevery few rolls left in library’s once glori-ous collection.

Rebuilding the Library Today

It is most fitting that it is an Arab gov-ernment that has decided to reconstructthis wonderful institution, especiallygiven the widespread acceptance of theslanderous myth—wholly contrary tothe documented historical record—thatthe Alexandria library was destroyed bythe Arabs during the period of Islamicexpansion. As the historical recordshows, the library was a most resilientinstitution, which held up over cen-turies, in the center of a fight to thedeath between those forces—present invarious cultural traditions—which pro-moted the spreading of knowledge asthe means to uplift and develop humansociety, and those forces dedicated to theidea of the tyranny of the few, whomight impound such knowledge as asecret weapon, to maintain control overthe ignorant masses.

The idea to rebuild the library goesback to 1974, and is attributed to Egypt-ian historian Mustafa al-Abbadi. Theambitious project was designed not onlyto commemorate the historic library, butto replicate it for the modern world. OnJune 26, 1988, Egyptian president HosniMubarak laid the foundations for thebuilding, accompanied by the director-general of UNESCO, which issued acall to individuals, organizations, andcountries to support the project. AnInternational Committee for Supportingthe Funding Campaign, was establishedat the request of Egypt. In 1990, $230million was pledged, mainly by Iraq,Saudi Arabia, and the United ArabEmirates. The Egyptian governmenthas underwritten the budget.

The first phase, building the sub-structure, at a cost of $60 million, wascompleted in December 1996, by theEgyptian state company, together withItalian partners. The second phase start-ed immediately thereafter, for the con-struction of the main building, which isto be ten storeys high. This part, whichwill cost $120 million, is being construct-ed by Arab contractors and a Britishcompany. The library should have69,000 square meters (750,000 squarefeet) of floor space, and should be able tohouse eight million volumes, in additionto hundreds of thousands of manu-scripts, tapes, compact discs, and videos.In the words of Yousri El Hakim, whois the engineer heading up the construc-tion monitoring unit, work is proceed-ing at a rapid pace, so as to complete itthis year. “We have 400 workers fromall over the world,” he said, “working 24hours a day in two shifts. . . . Weshould be finished by the end of 1998.”El Hakim added that althoughUNESCO had been instrumental in theinitiating phase of the project, “now it is100 percent Egyptian, under the min-istry of higher education.”

The project leaders are trying toreplicate the efforts of the Ptolemies, ingathering important works from allover the world. As the project managerDr. Mohsen Zahran reports, the newBibliotheca Alexandrina received a gov-ernment budget for purchases, and350,000 books have been acquired thus

far. In addition, governments and insti-tutions from around the world have gen-erously contributed magnificent itemsfor the center. Among them, is a com-plete microfilm record of the pricelessArabic manuscripts in the EscorialLibrary in Spain, donated by the SpanishRoyal Family in June 1997. France hasdonated several important books, includ-ing a copy of the Bible printed by Guten-berg. According to a protocol signedbetween Egypt and France, a grant of 4.4million French francs is to be allocated foran advanced, multi-lingual data system,which will effectively constitute an indexlinked to the world’s scientific networks.Already, 130,000 traditional and electron-ic data channels have been obtained, andpersonnel for the library are undergoingtraining locally and overseas. Australiahas offered a $10,000 grant-in-kind,which includes books published in Aus-tralia. The public library of the city ofStarazaogra in Bulgaria will donate a rarecopy of the Holy Quran to the library.The copy, which was received by Egypt’sambassador to Bulgaria, dates back to theyear 1278 of the Hijra.

Thus, if the project reaches comple-tion at the end of this year, the worldwill be considerably richer. The revivedlibrary of Alexandria should become,like its namesake, a center of learningand research, with emphasis on the civi-lizations of ancient Egypt, Greece, andthe Eastern mediterranean. Scholarsfrom throughout the world should flockthere, as their ancient counterparts did,to study, deliberate, research, teach, andgenerate new discoveries.

—Muriel Mirak Weissbach

Additional illustrations appear on the in-side back cover of this issue.

NOTES1. Edward Alexander Parsons, The Alexandri-an Library: Glory of the Hellenic World, ItsRise, Antiquities, and Destructions, (Amster-dam-London-New York: Elsevier Press,1952), pp. 101-102. 2. Ibid., pp. 108-109. 3. Dr.Geord Heinrich Klippel, Über das Alexan-drinische Museum, drei Bücher (Göttingen:1838), p. 124. 4. Ibid., pp. 140-141. 5. Ibid., p.161. 6. Parsons, op. cit, pp. 208-209. 7. Quotedin Klippel, op. cit, p. 186. 8. Ibid., p. 187. 9.Ibid., p. 211. 10. Ibid., pp. 226-227. 11. Ibid.,pp. 251-252.