- late were not immediately obtainable, and it therefore
became necessary to institute without delay a vigorous search for the books required. In order that the reader may appreciate fully the difficulties which Almansur had to overcome, in this matter of a scarcity of Greek originals, it seems best to pause at this point, and to review briefly some of the facts which bear upon the question at issue.
The Wholesale Destruction of Medical Literature during the Early Centuries of the Christian Era.—The invasion of Rome in 410 A. D. was one of the first events which entailed a serious loss of the Greek medical books that had been accumulating for several centuries in that city. Fortunately, not a few of these works were rescued in time by the church authorities and deposited for safe keeping in the various monasteries scattered all over the Roman Empire. A still more serious destruction of books occurred about the year 638 A. D., when Amrou, a famous Arabian warrior, captured Alexandria and—under the instructions of his master, Omar ben Khattab—destroyed the greater part of the contents of the famous libraries located in that city. The narrative of this event, as told by Lucien Le Clerc, is as follows:—
John the Grammarian,[1] who was living at that time in Alexandria,
held the following conversation with Amrou on a certain
occasion: "You have inspected all the edifices of Alexandria, and
have sequestrated all their contents. I have no objections to your
appropriating everything that may be of use to you; there are
certain things, however, which you may not wish to possess, but
which are highly prized by us."
"What are those objects?" inquired Amrou.
- ↑ John the Grammarian, whose nativity is not stated by Le Clerc, was at first a simple boatman who ferried back and forth those who attended a school which was located on one of the islands at Alexandria. As a result of his frequent talks with these men, he became enamored with philosophy and decided, notwithstanding his age (forty years), to devote himself entirely to the study of the subject. Accordingly, he sold his boat and attended the lectures regularly, becoming at last an expert in philosophy. He wrote several important treatises and commentaries, some of them dealing with medical topics, and he also made a number of translations from the Greek into Arabic.
