Hypatia, The Last Librarian of the Library of Alexandria

Hypatia was the last librarian of the Library of Alexandria.  She took care of the library and taught philosophy, math, and astronomy.  She was accused of witchcraft by a Christian mob that kidnapped her and then they murdered her in a most gruesome way around 415 C.E..  The following picture is of an actress portraying Hypatia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hypatia_(1900_Play.PNG

As I've written before, the final destruction of the Library of Alexandria came with the Christian laws against paganism and the Muslim invasion of Egypt and the subsequent burning of the remaining scrolls of the library to heat muslim bath houses.  According to wikipedia:

The library seems to have been maintained and continued in existence until its contents were largely lost during the taking of the city by the Emperor Aurelian (270–275), who was suppressing a revolt by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra (ruled Egypt AD 269–274). During the course of the fighting, the areas of the city in which the main library was located were damaged. The smaller library located at the Serapeum survived, but part of its contents may have been taken to Constantinople to adorn the new capital in the course of the 4th century. However, Ammianus Marcellinus, writing around AD 378 seems to speak of the library in the Serapeum temple as a thing of the past, and he states that many of the Serapeum library's volumes were burnt when Caesar sacked Alexandria.

In 642, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim army of Amr ibn al `Aas. There are five Arabic sources, all at least 500 years after the supposed events, which mention the fate of the library.

• Abd'l Latif of Baghdad (1162–1231) states that the library of Alexandria was destroyed by Amr, by the order of the Caliph Omar.
• The story is also found in Al-Qifti (1172–1248), History of Learned Men, from whom Bar Hebraeus copied the story.
• The longest version of the story is in the Syriac Christian author Bar-Hebraeus (1226–1286), also known as Abu'l Faraj. He translated extracts from his history, the Chronicum Syriacum into Arabic, and added extra material from Arab sources. In this Historia Compendiosa Dynastiarum^[ he describes a certain "John Grammaticus" (490–570) asking Amr for the "books in the royal library." Amr writes to Omar for instructions, and Omar replies: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."
• Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442) also mentions the story briefly, while speaking of the Serapeum.
• There is also a story in Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) which tells that Omar made a similar order about Persian books.

by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria