Biblical Archaeology Review - January-February 2018

S T R ATA

12 January/February 2018

Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s

Father Has Died

Mostafa ‘Abdel Hamid el-

‘Abbadi, the man behind the

recreation of the ancient

Great Library of Alexandria in

Egypt, died in February 2017,

aged 88. Professor of Clas-

sical Studies at Alexandria

University, el-‘Abbadi devoted

much of his research to the

ancient library of Alexandria.

His book The Life and Fate of

the Ancient Library of Alexan-

dria remains a valued account

on the long-vanished wonder

of Egypt’s former capital,

but el-‘Abbadi will be most

remembered for his initiative

toward the modern recreation

of this “temple” of learn-

ing—an imposing, 11-story

structure on the banks of the

Mediterranean (see the view

from the old harbor, below).

Called by a Latin name, Bib-

liotheca Alexandrina, the new

library was inaugurated on

October 16, 2002. However,

the library’s greatest cham-

pion, Mostafa el-‘Abbadi, was

not among the distinguished

guests at the official opening.

He was not invited—appar-

ently because of his criticism

of how the project had been

carried out.

Little is known about

the original, ancient Great

Library of Alexandria. We

don’t even know its location

or the year it was established.

Its size is a subject of unreli-

able accounts and modern

guesses ranging between

40,000 and 700,000 volumes.

It is sometimes confused

with other Alexandrian

libraries, such as the one

housed in the Serapeum

(temple dedicated to the

Greco-Egyptian deity Sera-

pis). The Great Library was

founded by Ptolemy I or his

son Ptolemy II, Alexander

the Great’s successor kings

in Egypt, in the third cen-

tury B.C.E. Part of a larger

complex, it was not just a

repository of books but a

center designed to provide a

nourishing environment for

the brilliant minds of the day.

The idea of a repository of all

human knowledge can rightly

be credited to the expedi-

tions of Alexander the Great,

which had shown for the first

time the diversity of human-

ity and the breadth of human

genius. To be sure, the Great

Library was not the first

ancient library, but it was the

first universal one—hous-

ing texts in many languages

and covering subjects from

astronomy to poetry, includ-

ing texts we don’t have or

don’t even know ever existed,

Professor el-‘Abbadi in his Alexandrian home

REUTERS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Bibliotheca Alexandrina

SCOTT NELSON