till the thirteenth century, six hundred years later.[1] Besides, it is in itself unlikely. It is very doubtful whether there was a library of any considerable size in Alexandria at the time. Ptolemy's famous library appears to have been destroyed by Cæsar. A few years later the library of the kings of Pergamum was lodged at the Serapeum; but when the Serapeum was destroyed by the mob in the fourth century, this library must have been burnt or scattered. Then John Philoponus, who, according to the late Arab story, had asked Amr' for the books, could not have been living in the year 642, because he is known to have been writing more than a century before this date. Moreover, the Arabs did not enter Alexandria for eleven months after the city had capitulated, and during all that time the inhabitants were free to carry off their treasures. When the entry was made, Amr' prohibited destruction of property. Lastly, there is the inherent improbability—as Mr. Butler points out—that books, many of them of parchment, would be used for lighting 4,000 bath fires. It would have paid the bathmen better to have sold them to scholars, many of whom would have come forward as eager purchasers. Putting all these facts together—the destruction of Ptolemy's library by the Romans in the first century b.c.; the destruction of the Serapeum, which contained the library from Pergamum in the third century a.d.; the evident impossibility of that part of the story that introduces the name of Philoponus; the ample opportunity for saving the books given to the Alexandrians; Amr's rigorous prohibition of deeds of violence; and the general improbability of the whole narrative—we have ample reasons for rejecting the tradition as not true.
After the Arab conquest of Egypt, the centre of government was removed from Alexandria to Fustât ("the tent"), near what is now known as "Old Cairo." This place was more easily reached from Medina and at the same time out of the Byzantine influences of Alexandria. Here the government was carried on for two hundred and fifty years.
- ↑ In 'Abd-el-Latīf and Abu-l-Farág.
