[Northkeep] TEACHERS BEWARE ....

Marc Carlson marccarlson20 at hotmail.com
Thu Jan 8 14:01:03 PST 2004


>From: DulcetKitten at aol.com
>>From Masamune
>>Al-gebra does derive from an Arabic word.  I find it ironic that a goodly
>>amount of mathematics was lost to the West when the Library at Alexandria 
>>was
>>burned and later reintroduced by Islamics--since it was the Islamics that 
>>burned
>>it in the first place.
>I was under the impression that the Library at Alexandria burned down after
>Caesar had set fire to all of Ptolemy's fleet in the Alexandrian harbor and 
>it
>spread to the city.  Perhaps I heard it wrong.

The Library (or the Museum as it was then known) of Alexandria *burned* when 
Caesar's troops set fire to nearby ships in 47 BC, yes.  The institution 
continued however, and survived the rioting of fanatical Christians in 391 
although large parts were damaged.  The final destruction was in 641 under 
the orders of Omar, Caliph of Bagdad.

M/D

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