One major question needs to be answered. Why should al-Baghdādī and Ibn al-Qiftī make up the story about Amr’s burning of the Ancient Library of Alexandria at the order of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattāb? El-Abbadi argued that after Saladin overthrew the rule of the Fatimids, he found himself in dire need of money to carry on his campaigns against the Crusaders and to pay off those who had co-operated with him and served him. He therefore donated as well as offered for sale many of the treasures he had confiscated; we know that among these treasures, were great public libraries of the Fatimids. Consequently, the destruction of the ancient library of alexandria there was a widespread feeling of resentment and discontent at the loss of such priceless legacies of learning. Saladin was accordingly exposed to bitter criticism, especially by the survivors of the old Shiite regime whom he sought to suppress.
To defend such an action, Ibn al-Qiftī, who was a close associate of Saladin, wrote this fictitious story to show that selling when in need, is a lesser crime than the burning of pagan books as Umar did.
Totally agree. I also like that quote because things ARE getting better, bit by bit, scrap by hard fought scrap. Things are still awful, of course, but I don’t think that anyone in any marginalized group would rather live 50 years ago (to pull a number). Nostalgia for a better past is, to me, a symptom of white supremacy and not something I engage with. Things SUCK for most people. They have ALWAYS sucked for most people. But they are better now, at least a bit. There are people trying to tear down even those tiny gains because they feel like life is a zero sum game and they might “lose”. That is, of course, bullshit and we have to fight it every step which is hard, and painful and sometimes feels like more than you can do.
It’s never going to be “done” and there are going to be lots of steps forward that are countered by steps back. But things are improving. It’s just so fucking slow and erratic that sometimes it feels like they aren’t.
And it is never over
ETA: I always assumed that it was because this was before the invention of late fees and all the books just slowly disappeared
And here I would say that people are making things better, but that it does not mean that is an inevitability.
But I think King’s theological intepretation matters here. For him, of course, god is the bender of the arc of history - but King would argue that we are god’s instrument in that. the arc does not bend if we do not do the work that god wants us to do - making the world a better place by working to eliminate injustice.
Exactly. There is no end of history, just all of us working to improve the lives of each other!
The Library of Alexandria appeals to a certain academic fantasy-- the notion that there might be one place that could fulfill all your research needs. Need to track down that citation? You don’t need to write a colleague-- it’s right there on the shelf.
This leads to two problems. First, any library that claims to have
“5. Comprehensive Level: A collection which, so far as is reasonably possible, includes all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, and other forms), in all applicable languages, for a necessarily defined and limited field. This level of collecting intensity is one that maintains a " special collection.” The aim, if not achievement, is exhaustiveness. Older material is retained for historical research. In law collections, this includes manuscripts, dissertations, and material on non-legal aspects."
must spend an awful lot of effort to maintain the collection at that level. If they fall behind, it’s less attractive to users because those annoying gaps start to appear.
The second problem is that centralisation of collections lends itself to catastrophe.
Currently reading Gubara, D. E. M. (2012). Al-Azhar in the Bibliographic Imagination. Journal of Arabic Literature, 43(2-3), 299–335. doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341236. The article, ostensibly about large Cairo library, goes deep into Michael Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge.
Right now I’m thinking that Sci-hub has certain similarities toi the Alexandrine Library, particularly the practice of seizing books from ships to be copied.
