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To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi
From: khidr0@yahoo.com (John Philadelphos)
Subject: Re: Ignoring the "Qabalah" vs. "Kabbalah" option.
Date: 15 Dec 2001 14:26:07 -0800
Gnomedplume@aol.com (Gnome d Plume) wrote in message news:<3c1c46eb.5253344@trialnews.peoplepc.com>...
> -- or perhaps the
> infamous emir's statement about the Library of Alexandria: "If these
> books agree with the Koran we don't need them, and if they do not
> agree, we do not want them." and so they burned them.
The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that this version of events is
"generally discredited."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01303a.htm
"After Aristarchos the importance of the library began to wane. In 47
B.C. Caesar was compelled to set fire to his fleet to prevent its
falling into the hands of the Egyptians. The fire spread to the docks
and the naval arsenal, and destroyed 400,000 rolls. It is most
probable from the statement of Orosius that these were not in the
library itself, but had been removed from it preparatory for shipment
to Rome, a view confirmed by the statement of the author of the
"Bellum Alexandrinum " that Alexandria was built in such a way as to
be safe from a great conflagration. Seneca and Gellius also speak only
of the burning of manuscripts, though the latter represents the
destruction as complete. Less carefully, Plutarch and Dio Cassius
speak of the burning of the library, but had this been the case we
should find mention of it in Cicero and Strabo.
The loss of books was partly repaired by Anthony 's gift to Cleopatra,
in 41 B.C., of 200,000 volumes from the library of Pergamon. Domitian
drew upon the library for transcripts. Under Aurelian, in A.D. 272,
the greater part of the Brucheion was destroyed, and it is most
probable that the library perished at this time. The small library in
the Serapeum is supposed to have perished when the temple of Serapis
was destroyed by Theophilus, but there is no definite statement to
that effect. Up to the time of Gibbon, the generally accepted version
of the destruction of the library was that, on the capture of the city
by the Mahommedans in A.D. 642, John Philoponos, having formed a
friendship with their general Amrou, asked for the gift of the
library. Amrou referred the matter to the Caliph Omar and received the
answer:
" If these writings 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."
Accordingly, they were employed in the baths as fuel, and lasted six
months. This story is now generally discredited, chiefly because it
rests only on the authority of Abulpharagius, a writer six centuries
later, while earlier writers, especially Eutychius and Elmacin, make
no mention of it. Besides, the act is contrary to Mohammedan custom;
John Philoponos lived about a century before the capture of the city,
and the statement of the time the rolls lasted as fuel is
preposterous. Finally, there is the evidence given above for the
earlier destruction of the library."
Khidr
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