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The BA Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center (Alex Med) organizes a ceremony to launch the first and second volumes of the book The Alexandrias of Étienne Combe. The ceremony is held in the BACC Lecture Hall.
As part of the ceremony, the Center will host Dr. Hossam Abdel Basit, Director General at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who examined and studied the articles of the famous Swiss archaeologist and historian Étienne Combe.
The book The Alexandrias of Étienne Combe tackles the history and civilization of the city of Alexandria in the Middle Ages through the translation, investigation, and study of a collection of historical and archaeological articles written by the famous Swiss archaeologist and historian Étienne Combe, Director of the Municipal Library of Alexandria and Full Professor of Medieval Islamic History at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University during the1940s. These articles are written in French, and explore the historical and archaeological topography, as well as the urban development of Alexandria in the Islamic Middle Ages. This topographic study also traces the city’s history, from the road between the city of Rashid and the city of Alexandria, to the development of Lake Idku, Abu Qir, Nelson Island during the Middle Ages, Lake Hadrah, the suburb of Smouha, and Lake Mariout. The ceremony is open to the public without prior registration.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to Ptolemy I Soter, who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself was probably not built until the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Library quickly acquired many papyrus scrolls, owing largely to the Ptolemaic kings’ aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts. It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.
Source: Bibliotheca Alexandrina
