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Essays on History, Religion, and Politics

History

The Arab Destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria: An Analysis of a Another Popular Myth

October 19, 2022 by Joshua Little

In a recent article, I explored a popular myth about the destruction of pre-Islamic Persian books and knowledge during the great Arab conquests, based on an improbable story that can be found in certain extremely late Arabic sources. There is however another, similar myth, which is perhaps better known than the first: that it was … [Read more…]

Posted in: History, Islamophobia, Textual Analysis Tagged: Alexandria, Arab conquests, Great LIbrary, history, Islam, Islamophobia, Joshua Little

The Arab Destruction of Persian Books: An Analysis of a Popular Myth

October 19, 2022 by Joshua Little

There is an infamous story about the great Arab conquests and the destruction of books, which is popularly cited by Islamophobes to show that Muslims are intolerant zealots or philistines who hate science, etc. The story goes that, when the Arab armies conquered Persia, they found libraries of Persian books. The Arab commander, Saʿd b. … [Read more…]

Posted in: History, Islamophobia, Textual Analysis Tagged: Arab conquests, history, Islam, Islamophobia, Joshua Little, Persia, Science

Who is “Ishaq b. Kharashah”? Solving an Isnad Mystery

October 19, 2022 by Joshua Little

In the course of my investigation of a certain corpus of exegetical hadiths, I happened to come across the following report in the Tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī: Yaʿqūb b. ʾIbrāhīm related to me—he said: “Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us—he said: “Rajāʾ b. ʾabī Salamah related to us—he said: “ʿUbādah b. Nusayy, reported to us—he said: “Our … [Read more…]

Posted in: Hadith, History, Textual Analysis Tagged: Hadith, history, Islam, Isnad, Joshua Little
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