Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
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Alexandria came under the domination of the
Christians. With reference to the survival of existing
institutions, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica
states that
“the main museum and library were destroyed
during the civil war of the third century A.D. and a
subsidiary library was burned by Christians in A.D.
391.”
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This same work, however, erroneously links the
final destruction of the library with the Muslim
period. In its article on censorship, it has this to say:
There are many accounts of the burning, in
several stages, of part or all of the library at
Alexandria, from the siege of Julius Caesar in
47 B.C. to its destruction by Christians in A.D.
391 and by Muslims in 642. In the latter two
instances, it was alleged that pagan literature
presented a danger to the Old and New
Testaments or the Qur’an.
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The above attribution of the destruction of the
Alexandria library to Islam has no basis in fact. The
first two extracts quoted above from the
Encyclopaedia Britannica
clearly refute this. Islam by
its very nature, encourages the acquisition of
