24 - 30 May 2001
Issue No.535
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 May 2001 Issue No.535 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Limelight
Back to the future...
The recent buzz over the upcoming construction of the Biblioteca Alexandrina on the same site as the ancient Royal Library evoked deep-rooted childhood memories of my first romance: It was a love affair that would last. Time would only help to cement and compound it. It endured the frowns of fortune, and the impending triumph of progress.
The object of my love was the book. It started when as a mere infant my father would seat me on his knees and show me his big books. I was mesmerised as he gently turned the pages, and the words sang and danced on every line. The pictures were few, but while they may be worth a thousand words, the reverse was true for me. My passion was for the written word. Even then I knew that we were nothing, even less than nothing without books.
The library in my college years was my refuge, for within its walls lived the thoughts and feelings of great men and women, reaching out to us on the pages of their books, sharing their ideas in quiet whispers. This is where I spent my days in blissful reverie. Libraries have educated and entertained since the dawn of civilisation. They are the most important contribution ever made for the preservation of human culture. The reconstruction of Alexandria's ancient library is an idea as dignified, as it is noble. A project of such magnitude, such splendour, sends shivers up and down my spine.
Following the historic meeting in Aswan on February 12th 1990 members of the International Honorary Committee, including heads of state and world dignitaries, signed the Aswan declaration for the revival of the ancient library of Alexandria. In a joint effort with the government of Egypt under the patronage of President Hosni Mubarak and UNESCO, the library will rank as one of the modern world's most useful service institutions. As we look forward with hope to the future we need to pause for a brief nostalgic look at our ancestral glory -- the remembrance of things past!
photo: Yves Paris
The ancient library was founded by Ptolemy I in the 3rd Century BC as a shrine to the Muses -- dedicated to the divine patrons of the arts and sciences. Ptolemy's great ambition was to possess all the known world literature . He stretched this concept to a true world library. The library stood for six centuries as a source of enlightenment to the nations of the civilised world. Several diggings in the area where the library once stood, have revealed scientific and historical documents that would have resulted in the industrial revolution occurring 1500 years earlier. The library housed advanced studies in astronomy, geometry, medicine, and even mechanics, astounding the scholars of today. The ancients applied trigonometry to estimate the distance and sizes of the sun and the moon. They discovered and measured the equinoxes. The scholar Euclid, a guest of the library established the foundations of geometry. Archimedes is later credited with the discovery of Pi. Eratosthenes calculated the earth's circumference within one per cent. He further suggested that the seas were connected, that Africa can be circumnavigated, and that India could be reached by sailing westward from Spain. He even deduced the length of the year to 365¼ days and was the first to suggest adding a leap day every four years, an idea implemented centuries later. Herophilus collected and compiled the Hippocratic corpus. He first distinguished the brain and nervous system as a unit, as well as the function of the heart and the circulation of the blood. Eristratos concentrated on the digestive system, and suggested that nutrition as well as nerves and the brain influenced mental diseases, a modern medical discovery of the last 50 years. Such was the glory of the Alexandria Library. We lament the scope of information lost through the centuries, but we rejoice at the vast amount of knowledge amassed from the Alexandrian discoveries. These discoveries provide even today the groundwork for modern research, especially in mathematics and geometry.
The treasures and lustre of the ancient library made it a thing of beauty that should have lasted forever. Alas, we know it did not. Scholars agree that it perished in a fire, but controversy still hovers over the identity of the culprit. Most scientific fingers point to Julius Caesar who inadvertently destroyed, it as he put fire to the fleet of Cleopatra's brother and rival monarch.
The revival of the library of Alexandria is a unique historic venture by the international community. At the helm, as chairman of the International Honorary Commission is the indefatigable Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak. Single-handedly, in a matter of a few short years, she has skillfully engineered a tour de force for the eradication of illiteracy. Deeply aware that children can be trained to read, she has worked tirelessly to make the book accessible to every child! Once children start to read, they have no difficulty in deriving both profit and pleasure from it. Libraries in Egypt have sprung in every village, every school, every street corner. It is therefore no wonder that she is championing the reconstruction of civilisation's first known library. Once completed the library will glorify the past and look onto the future, providing a sanctuary for worthy ideas and preserving society's cultural heritage for generations to come. The question remains as to the method of preservation of the literary and scientific gems of the future. Will every piece of knowledge known to mankind be transposed on a floppy disc, peering at us through an inanimate box that is turned on and off at will? As papyrus and linear scroll gave way to paper and books, can we resist the onset of the audio, the digital and the technical? Will the electronic media render the book a relic of the past? Are we helplessly witnessing its demise? Will the children of tomorrow ever experience that complete abandonment to emotions, provoked by the rapturous devotion to a book? Will they hold it, hug it, savour its contents and lay it under their pillows? As we anticipate the completion of this noble endeavour, our faith is restored by the lead of a lover of books. All you book lovers unite. Do not allow man's best friend to "go gently into that good night"!
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page