The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-10
LETTERS TO EDITOR
DESTRUCTION OF ALEXANDRA

T, the ECitor of The Age Herald:
 Of course I cannot say how it used to be, long time ago, but here of late both writers and speakers seem to think rothing of indulging in historical inac- curaeies. ,H
 In the Sunday paper, in speaking of Volume over 3,oOo Years Old" and the great "Alexandrian Library it is said shat when .Mahonet was on the ram
 Yape in the Southwest Mediterranean vicinity his cavalry leader, Khaled, an
 other rellglous fanatic, stormed and cap tured Alexandria" It would seem from this article that Khaled, on his own ac-
 count, without asking orders from h.s
 superior destroyed this famous library, which. at one tioaa is said to have rcr- tained over 700G00 volumes. Although
 Nhaled arrived at the vers highest lis-
 motion as a general of the Faithful
 be did not do 50 u-,1er tho cc-,an,anl of
 Mahomet, and besides Khaled had no hand in taking -A.eXanGria, Or ii Dufs-- ;ng the library. Mahomet never was on
 such a military rampage and was never
 very far from the cities of Mecca end
 Medina At Mahomet's death khaled hae
 not accomplished much. and while, after
 wards, he did more than any other gen
 ,ral "a s-rea T his re''rriC-' hv -ho --T'' ''
 earning the title of the sword Of God
 although he overran many tribes anu
 lations and stormed and captured Ea1t towns and cities, he did not do so under the command of Mahomet. but unGer t, first two of Mahomet's successors, Abu 9eker end Omar. Both Mahomet and Khaled were dead before Alexandra was stormed by Amru Ibn Al Aass, when Omar was Commander of the Faithful. Anlru was the most accomplished or the first Mohametan generals and was ce- srous of saving the remainder or the treat library which had hee- nract 'T- ally destroyed by Christians before his time, and there was little O. l- .ele, lt- tle in conlparison to what there had been When he asked perm 'ssicsN re th0 ''a''''3' to give the volume to his friend, John the irammarian Omar lnot MahomeD re- piled, "The contents Of these books arr iE conformity with the Koran or they ar not If they are, the Koran is sufficient iswithout them if they are not. they are rserricious. Let them, therefore, be de- stroyed.''
 During the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar, the library was l7eot m two build- | figs, one of which was destroyed by fire. It, however, was replaced with the col | lection at Pergamos by Mark Antony, | who presented the collection to Queen | Cleopatra The other part of the ltsary was kept in temple of Jupiter. TheN- l dosius the Great permitted all the pagan temples in the Koran empire to be de- stroyed or dismanted, and in the year ] A. D. S9l mob led by Archbishop The ophilus destroyed the temple, together with the ereater part of the library. This
 was when the destruction of the library
 was practically accomplished. and only a remainder was left for Amru under | Omar (not Khaled under Mahome) to de- l strOy. l The historian, Paulus Orosius. who vis- itei Alexandria and the temple shortly
 after the attack of Theophilus. wrote that there were only empty shelves to be seen,
 and hence onlS a remnant could have been | left for destruction-by. Amru, not khaled,
 who was probably nsver in Egypt, and
 certainlv never assaulted the citv of Alex
 ar dria. Very truly, P G. FDMoNDS.