Military Mindset and Peaceful Means

Khattab, the second caliph of Islam, ordered the burning of the great library of Alexandria after the conquest of Egypt, leading to the destruction of its priceless collection of books. A common response to this accusation has been to dismiss these individuals as enemies of Islam seeking revenge for their defeat in the Crusades. Such responses often allege that the story of the library’s burning was fabricated as part of a conspiracy. However, this approach does not constitute constructive criticism. By its nature, it amounts to slander rather than a scholarly rebuttal of the clergymen’s claims. Later, some scholars approached the issue differently. Through rigorous historical investigation, they demonstrated that the claim was entirely baseless. They established that the library of Alexandria was not burned on the orders of Umar ibn al-Khattab. In fact, at the time of the Islamic conquest in 642 CE, the library no longer existed. Historical records show that the Roman ruler Julius Caesar had destroyed the library in 48 BCE, centuries before the Arab conquest. (For details, see Philip K. Hitti’s History of the Arab’s, page 166.) This second method represents an example of scientific criticism. Criticism is not a vice; it is a vital tool for intellectual progress. Without a critical environment, the process of intellectual growth halts. The real choice before us is not between criticism and non-criticism but between criticism and intellectual stagnation. Without critique, intellectual development ceases altogether.