The caliph's order
'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, about 1200, tells that the library of Alexandria was burned by 'Amr on the caliph 'Umar's order; Ibn al-Qifti, in the 13th century, adds that John the Grammarian asked 'Amr for the books, and that 'Umar replied that if they agreed with the Qur'an they were not needed, and if they disagreed they were not wanted.
Told by 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi and Ibn al-Qifti, c. 1200 and the 13th century, first written down some 550 years after the conquest
What the evidence supports
The story was first written down some 550 years after the conquest of 641–642, and the accounts nearer the conquest say nothing of books. John Philoponus had died about seventy years before it. He did write this answer to Proclus in 529.
Sources (3)
- Ibn al-Qifti, History of the Learned
- 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Account of Egypt
- B. Lewis, 'The Vanished Library' (1990)