WARS OF THE CALIPHS. 355 



other devastations commilted in his reign. Pre- 

 suming on his famiharity with Aniru, John the 

 Grammarian had ventured to sohcit the gift of the 

 royal manuscripts, which he obsei-ved the conquer- 

 ors had omitted, as of no value, in sealing up the 

 other magazines and repositories of wealth. The 

 general seemed disposed to comply ; but as it was 

 beyond his power to alienate any part of the spoil, 

 the consent of the caliph was necessary. The 

 answer of the latter is well knoAvn, — a sophism that 

 might convince an ignorant fanatic, but could only 

 excite the astonishment and regret of a philosopher. 

 " What is written in the books j'oumentionis either 

 agreeable to the book of God (the Koran), or it is 

 not : If it be, then the Koran is sufficient without 

 them ; if otherwise, 'tis fit they should be destroyed." 

 The indiscriminate sentence was executed ^\ath blind 

 obedience ; and thus perished the literary stores 

 which the pride or learning of the Ptolemys had 

 collected from all parts of the world. They were 

 distributed as fuel to warm the baths of the city ; 

 and such was the prodigious multitude of volumes, 

 that six months were scarcely sufficient for their 

 consumption. 



This instance of oriental barbarism is by some 

 doubted, or totally discredited. " For my own part," 

 says Gibbon, " I am strongly tempted to deny both 

 the fact and the consequences." And his skepticism, 

 in which he is joined by Mons. Langles, he supports 

 by the silence of the two annalists, Elmacin and 

 Eutychius, who amply describe the military trans- 

 actions of the Arabs ; both Christians ; both na- 

 tives of Eg\T)t : and both anterior to Abulfarage, the 

 only author, he alleges, who records the catastrophe. 

 Were this statement correct, or did the event rest 

 upon " the solitary report of a stranger who wrote 

 at the end of 600 years," it might stagger our faith 

 in the narrative of the Arminian historian. But the 

 fact does not rest on his sole autho'rity. On the 



