Wednesday, April 20, 2011

As Though They Had Never Been



"Besides this, however, many of their discoveries [the ancients] were ultimately lost to the world, some, as at Alexandria, by fire -- the bigoted work of a Mohammedan conquerer -- some by irruption of barbarians; and all were buried so long and so completely by the night of the dark ages, that they had to be rediscovered almost as absolutely and completely as though they had never been." -- Oliver J. Lodge, physicist, Pioneers of Science, 1893
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3 comments:

  1. Quantum_FluxApril 21, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    Mohammedan conquerers burned down Alexandria in 600 CE? I never heard that one before.

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  2. OilIsMasteryApril 21, 2011 at 11:27 AM

    Amr ibn al `Aas by the order of Caliph Omar ~641-642 A.D.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeffery KeownApril 21, 2011 at 5:18 PM

    That was after the Christians had their way with the Library in 392 or so.

    ReplyDelete