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The sect which was honored by the virtues of Abulpharagius appears, however, to sink below the level of their Nestorian brethren. Something may possibly be allowed for the rigor of the Monophysite theology; much more for the superior influence of the monastic order.
I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I passed in silence the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by the learned Abulpharagius.
According to Abulpharagius, one Abu Said revolted against the Khaliff Al Mohated, in the year of the hegira, 285, A.D. 893, and laid waste Bassora. This date agrees with the story of Ebn Wahab in the text. Harris. From this circumstance, it appears probable that the great canal of China was not then constructed. Some circumstances in this very interesting detail have been a little curtailed.
"He was not ignorant," says Abulpharagius, "that they are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the industry of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal appetites.
How characteristic was Caesar's reply to the frightened pilot! Yet in all probability Caesar never made it. Now for the evidence. Alexandria was captured by Armrou in 640. The story of the burning of the library occurs for the first time in the works of Abulpharagius, who flourished in 1264. Six hundred years had elapsed.
Since the Dynasties of Abulpharagius have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of antiquity. For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the consequences. The fact is indeed marvellous.
Their present numbers are esteemed from fifty to fourscore thousand souls, the remnant of a populous church, which was gradually decreased under the impression of twelve centuries. Yet in that long period, some strangers of merit have been converted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew was the father of Abulpharagius, primate of the East, so truly eminent both in his life and death.
This act of barbarism, recorded by Abulpharagius, is considered somewhat doubtful by Gibbon, in consequence of its not being mentioned by two of the most ancient chroniclers, Elmacin in his Saracenic history, and Eutychius in his annals, the latter of whom was patriarch of Alexandria and has detailed the conquest of that city.
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