Comments on A day in Alexandria

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lindoG, you look beautiful. Be back the day after to read all I missed
All the [posts look hauntingly exciting. Am leving right now by night bus to attend a funeral tomorrow.

posted by Bhaskar.ing on December 29, 2007 at 7:43 AM | link to this | reply

Couldn't resist a little religious banter Naut???
Hello my friend! i had not heard of Omar's order to burn the library of Alexandria, so i did a quick search and it seems that the story cannot be confirmed. I have to admit though, that it does sound like Omar who was a puritan to the extreme. Muslims revere Omar for what they regard as righteousness and iron will, he is called the Distinguisher ( al Farouq) because he is said to have distinguished between right and wrong ( whatever that means), but in reality most of this folklore was spun as a sunni counter propaganda to the Shiite adoration of Ali ( who had the distinction of being Mohammad's cousin, his favorite daughter's husband -Omar had asked for Fatima's hand in marriage but Mohamamd declined, Ali was also the highest authority in Islamic law, not to mention that he was a formidable soldier). At the end of the day, both men's pros and cons have been blown out of proportion but in the case of Omar, the fact remains that he abolished many lenient doctrines of Islam (eg. Al Muta'a marriage or the marriage of pleasure which was a sort of a living-together arrangement for a period of time that the man and woman agreed to). Through his fearsome belief that he was doing the best for the nation, Omar gained the admiration of many, I for one believe that his legacy needs re-examination, presto!!!! 

posted by lindo on December 29, 2007 at 3:29 AM | link to this | reply

Lindo

Ah yes, the famous library of Alexandria - the most famous one of the ancient world. One of the men who destroyed its treasures was the Caliph Omar in the 7th century, after conquering Egypt, because he was concerned the texts might contradict the Koran... And it also burned on several occasions.

Looks rather different these days...lol. And the weather looks great, contrary to what we're experiencing these days...

posted by Nautikos on December 27, 2007 at 6:03 PM | link to this | reply