This Made Me Cry

In the midst of various other things, I’m preparing now for a trip to Turkey (9 days, starting in Antalya and ending in Istanbul). Something I read tonight made me cry, even though I’ve heard it before:

The library of Pergamum survived into Roman times, when it was given by
Antony to Cleopatra. She had it transported to Alexandria, where it
remained more or less intact until the 7C. There is an unsubstantiated
account that it was destroyed on the orders of the fanatical Caliph Omar after
the capture of Alexandria by the Arabs in AD 640. He ruled that if the
books were in accord with the Koran, they were unnecessary, and if they
contained matter which disagreed with the Koran, they should be destroyed.
So, it is said, the books from Pergamum were amongst those that fed the fires of
Alexandria’s 4000 public baths! (source: Blue Guide Turkey, p. 154).