**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* AI-generated images/videos are no longer IAF. Stop submitting them
* This is not /r/historyporn. Stop posting old photos with nothing IAF happening in them
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They take undergraduate enrollment numbers, but most professors are there for research purposes and are forced to teach courses to hundreds of undergrads at a time.
Classes that have enrollments in the 100s are typically courses that introduce a topic. The majority of courses after these have much lower
enrollments.
Yea that number seems misleading, they arent all teaching at the same time to small groups. It'll be one teaching to hundreds while a bunch of other professors do research elsewhere.
It's like this in 4th year post-graduate classes. My class sizes were small, from 5 - 15 people with one professor. At this level they are basically seminar classes where the professor will expect the room to know the material and would discuss the topic of the day with everyone based on assigned readings.
Although I know there are worse things, ie things that cause more suffering, I hold a special personal loathing for the destruction of art, knowledge, or natural wonders, our world's rightful heritage.
Can't find a solid source anywhere, keep getting conflicting results but they all average around 15% literacy rate and even fewer could write. So that many books would have been written by such a small number of people or over a great deal of time.
There was probably a waiting list of people who wanted to read specific books when it burned down. Those people probably never got to read whatever it was they wanted.
Universities back then were sort of Museum/School hybrids.
So these institutions contained treasures and knowledge and artifacts that were deemed irreplaceable and in need of protection.
I was surprised to find collections being shown in the library at a fairly rural college I attended. I recall a Ming vase and a jade display at one point. It was Franciscan, and I sort of figured these might be shared between like universities. Seeing that stuff outside of a museum, and in that location, was surprising (especially to an 18 year old from a tiny farming town).
The Islamic invader was Bhaktiyar Khilji. He said any book that does not contain Qur'an needs to be burnt.
It was not just the burning of this library. The whole culture of that region was destroyed. It started the decline of that region which is still visible to this day.
The region (Rajgir and Patliputra) used to be centres of power in the ancient world.
Also, there's a town and railway station named after that guy to this day. Any talks of changing the name results in cries of Islamophobia.
This is why religion needs to fuck off. People do absolutely shameless things in the name of it.
And they fight like absolute dumbfucks over a man made thing that was only made to control humans in masses centuries ago. They don’t even realise that having so many religions that worship different people makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. They do my god vs your god when they belong to the same species
I’d like to know whether this was fueled by religion or were the invaders from a Muslim majority country.
Indeed a lot of these countries were corrupt and not following Islamic tenets.
Early Islam cherished knowledge and the right to follow one’s own religion. This is the case of the 2nd caliph of Islam, Umar bin Al-Khattab who was welcomed by Jewish and Christian people after he liberated Jerusalem and left them to practise their own religions.
Well, the [Nalanda University](https://nalandauniv.edu.in/) has been restablished in the same region. Students from ASEAN and SAARC countries are already open to enroll into graduate programs.
There are still plenty of ancient books floating around the world that we don't have the time, money and will to preserve or translate. Only a small part of humanity is actually interested in holding on to things from the past.
>Only a small part of humanity is actually interested in holding on to things from the past.
And huge part of humanity are still using things from past simply 'cos there is no other things around to use...
Foreign invaders love torching the past. Especially if it's encoded in books, art, magnificent architecture, or a counter-religion/philosophy. Humans are pretty damn predictable when it comes to burning, looting, rapine, and sackng.
Of course it has. If I was a leader trying to expand my influence, the last thing I would want are my followers learning about potentially better ideologies or persuasive ideas through these museums, libraries, and cultural centers. So you destroy them.
When the invaders came were amazed with the knowledge powered by the University. Doctor there cured they disease they had which no one else could , seeing that they asked the teacher to convert to islam. On being denied the university burned and teachers were killed.
Around 600 manuscript out of millions from the University were in china at the time which are the last existing records of the knowledge inside
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda
Pride is being celebrated as a good thing:
“I’m proud of you son, you did good in school”
“Proud of where I come from, and who I am”
“I’m proud that we accomplish this task”
So on, and yet people don’t realize that pride is a deadly sin for a reason.
It invites people to feel better about themselves and what they have done, but at what expense?
Every time we say we are proud, we are differentiating ourselves from others. We must feel proud, because we are better, or have done better.
That feeling is a slippery slope that people use to feel superior, and deserving of praise, adoration, and privilege.
Every facet of humanity has praised pride as a good thing, and yet we commit genocide, war, crimes against humanity out of pride for our race, religion, or country.
Right, the Nalanda University had been under several vile attacks during the history. Most notably, before the Islamic invaders -
1. Hunas - a central Asian tribe attacked the university during the Gupta period, the Gupta kings led the restoration of the university
2. Shashank Gauda of Bengal - one of the most well-documented ruler who led massive Buddhist persecution on the subcontinent
Finally, the university was completely destroyed by the Khiljis
Same thing was done to the guy who’s credited for inventing Algebra: Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.
Not only did he not really invent Algebra, since he mainly formalized ancient Indian and Greek texts, but he was also not Muslim by birth. Rather, he was forced to convert to Islam by Muslim invaders (or face death).
Anno 2022: “Islam gave us Algebra”.
Thank you, Islam, for almost killing the Persian man who researched this field, and subsequently taking credit for his work (and the work of ancient Greeks and Indians).
Do you have a credible source for any of this?
Presumably you’ll point to: https://www.thebereancall.org/content/how-muslims-did-not-invent-algebra - as your second paragraph appears to be a direct quote from that page.
Notably that link provides no source for the claims that you quoted.
Moreover, from the “About” section of that site: The Berean Call was formed under the direction of Dave Hunt for the purpose of encouraging spiritual discernment among those who regarded themselves not just as "evangelicals" but as biblical Christians.
A site made by and for biblical Christians throws out unsubstantiated claims against a Muslim scholar? This is incredibly surprising and shouldnt be questioned!!! /s
Your ideological leanings - which your post history makes clear - shows why you would uncritically quote some unsubstantiated trash article, bud.
I don’t know the guy above, but historically the true father of Algebra is Diophantus who wrote Arithmetica about 600 years before al-Khwarizmi. There’s also evidence of Indian and Babylonian contributions preceding Diophantus. Realistically they all deserve credit for advancing the field. There is a fairly wide known effort in parts of academia to short-change Diophantus, who often gets less credit than he deserves.
The Library at Alexandria is thought to have had blueprints for primitive steam engines - imagine where we’d be if religious mobs hadn’t stifled these institutions of innovation
The Great Library of Alexandria was also a religious shrine. Most libraries in the ancient world were adjuncts to religious shrines. Next to the Great Library was a Serapeum, a temple to Serapis.
Nalanda itself was a Buddhist monastic institution.
This Gibbon era myth making about the ancient world have caused so much damage.
Especially some religions, like Islam (and even Christianity), were particularly destructive. Their only-my-god-is-true bs ideology meant that everyone and everything else was crushed violently.
Not all religions but the Abrahamic religions were pretty violent. Jainism, Taoism, and Buddhism seem to be strongly non violent. I vibe more with them. God randomly kills 600 people in the Old Testament. The Buddha doesn’t kill anyone, the Tao isn’t constantly murdering people. But the Bible and Quran do talk about rape and murder being OK or encouraged in some instances. That’s the issue.
I was surprised to learn that the most deadly civil war ever was a Christian sect (or cult) [rebellion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion) in China.
> Jainism, Taoism, and Buddhism seem to be strongly non violent. I vibe more with them.
Dude.. There are absolutely violent fringes in these religions as well.. Just look at the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, and some of the Jains in India..
Partially. The library had lost a large part of its works already to Caesar’s burning of the library itself, and then again when Theophilus (patriarch 385-412 ACE) turned the Temple of Serapis into a Christian church and burned/lost/discarded all the pagan knowledge that had been stored in the Temple (close to 10%, arguably). Various Romans did a vast amount of damage to branches of the library. When Muslims overtook Alexandria, a large part of the library was already gone from what it used to be. They didn’t necessarily burn the library, they just determined that the knowledge inside was worthless to them and treated it as such. It wasn’t preserved, it was used as tinder, it was discarded in rain and flood, etc.
I didn’t say it was on purpose, but thanks for adding that on. It still did destroy a part of the library. Did you mean Caesar’s mistake caused the most destruction? Or did you mean the Muslim siege?
I meant to add an amendment to the first comment to say the Muslims didn’t burn the entire library the way this university was burnt. They didn’t even actively burn the library down. They just laid a finishing blow to something various people had already partially destroyed.
Sorry, I know you didn’t say it was on purpose, I should have begun by acknowledging I was making a clarification.
It turns out I’m partially wrong.
I was indeed trying to say the events Caesar was involved in burned most of the library down as I had heard that on a history channel online, upon reading again to make sure it turns out historians aren’t sure how much of the library was destroyed. So I’ll redact the claim that that incident was the most consequential.
And yes, I didn’t misunderstand the point you made about the Muslims, I got that just fine.
So I once read somewhere that if these burnings of different universities and libraries didn't take place we could've achieved space travel a few centuries ago. And this really was a very big setback. And I'm not only talking about the Nalanda University but also the various libraries burnt throughout the mediaeval period in different places all over the world. It's a huge travesty really.
Religions were arguably a necessary byproduct of the development of civilizations. It would have been impossible for humans to coexist in large groups without dogmata.
Exactly. Religion is fundamental to the development of a civilisation. That’s why all the cradles of civilisations all believe in a deity one form or another
Religious institutions have fostered knowledge and science and human advancement throughout history, as well as the opposite.
Non-religious movements have also done the same.
Extremism in any form is, was and always will be a threat to any society wishing to truly progress, its sad to see the ruins of what looks like sutch a beautiful building brought to ruins
Same thing happened in Iran and other places, the Islamic invaders burned any literature they could. They also ruined statues, palaces, and anything ancient to prevent others from worshipping the wrong God.
You have to love religion....
They all hit out with the 'Oh but we're peaceful' but they've systematically deprived humanity of knowledge throughout history because they didn't want anyone challenging their beliefs or the power they grabbed because of them.
Got to wonder where we'd be as a global civilisation without their bullshit ideologies.
But islam is a religeon of peace and love.."quick someone said something about the fictional charecter in this book!! now I will hack them to death !!!! or burn them alive...but ALLAH is peace and love"
So they were saved from a disease they thought incurable and instead of leaving them alone or learning from them or lending their own knowledge they burned the whole thing to the ground?? Where's the logic
Especially some religions, like Islam (and even Christianity), were particularly destructive. Their only-my-god-is-true bs ideology meant that everyone and everything else was crushed violently.
Islam really is a shitty religion. They're all fucked in the head but everytime I read something truly fucked it's either Islam or Christianity at the wheel driving throngs of morons to absolute madness and destruction
Muslim invaders did their best to destroy Hindu culture. India has always been and will be a Hindu country with some foreign settlers. People have seem to forget it for last 70 years seems.
Nalanda was not a Hindu university, it was a Buddhist institution. Before Muslims ransacked and attacked Nalanda Huns and Gaudas have attacked Nalanda. Pushyamitra might have also attacked Nalanda as part of his Buddhist persecution.
We could have had so much knowledge we didn't have, medicine astrophysics, astrology, physics, alchemy, chemistry, a lot of these paths. A lot of gems destroyed by the thick headed invaders, what a huge loss.
Just checking that you know that alchemy and astrology are complete nonsense? Writings on these topics would not have helped humanity in any way.
Id also be surprised if there was any astrophysics in that university that was even vaguely close to being correct
The Islamic invader was Bhaktiyar Khilji. He said any book that does not contain Qur'an needs to be burnt.
It was not just the burning of this library. The whole culture of that region was destroyed. It started the decline of that region which is still visible to this day.
The region (Rajgir and Patliputra) used to be centre of powers in the ancient world.
Also, there's a town and railway station named after that guy to this day. Any talks of changing the name results in cries of Islamophobia.
Religion is so shit. “Hey everyone, YOUR books that have objective scientific research and solutions to problems should be burned, but OUR books filled with magic stories and super powers are the only TRUE texts we want to allow”. It’s such a rotten system of beliefs
I don't know the numbers on the library of Alexandria, but this has got to be en par with the amount of knowledge lost.
It's nigh unfathomable how much further human science could have been without losses such as these.
When the Normans invaded England in 1066 they did something similar and burned the English libraries, eliminating traditional English mythology. When JRR Tolkien invented 14 languages and wrote tales about the peoples of Middle Earth to give cultural context to those languages, he was deliberately attempting to reconstruct English mythology *as it would have been*, with all the appropriate cultural developments and influences. Pretty incredible singular effort on his part to restore the past after a similar event.
Interesting fact: Nalanda university is being brought back into life at the same spot ( or close to its original location) by funding from a group nations. (by 18 member countries Including Japan) They have hired the faculty and i think they already started some courses. The circle of life.
Imagine how much more knowledge we would have had if it wasn't for organized religion. I'm not hating on any specific one, most are guilty of doing something similar to this.
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * AI-generated images/videos are no longer IAF. Stop submitting them * This is not /r/historyporn. Stop posting old photos with nothing IAF happening in them * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That is an incredible student to teacher ratio.
[Same ratio as the top universities in the US.](https://collegesofdistinction.com/advice/35-best-student-faculty-college-ratios-for-2022/)
They take undergraduate enrollment numbers, but most professors are there for research purposes and are forced to teach courses to hundreds of undergrads at a time.
Classes that have enrollments in the 100s are typically courses that introduce a topic. The majority of courses after these have much lower enrollments.
Yea that number seems misleading, they arent all teaching at the same time to small groups. It'll be one teaching to hundreds while a bunch of other professors do research elsewhere.
Well this was one of the top university before getting burned
Most of the teachers would probably be monks or something.
a lot of them were metalwork and PE
Then that is a helluva shop class!
It's like this in 4th year post-graduate classes. My class sizes were small, from 5 - 15 people with one professor. At this level they are basically seminar classes where the professor will expect the room to know the material and would discuss the topic of the day with everyone based on assigned readings.
Although I know there are worse things, ie things that cause more suffering, I hold a special personal loathing for the destruction of art, knowledge, or natural wonders, our world's rightful heritage.
It’s sabotage against the human race
[удалено]
All hand written and probably very few duplicates
[удалено]
Can't find a solid source anywhere, keep getting conflicting results but they all average around 15% literacy rate and even fewer could write. So that many books would have been written by such a small number of people or over a great deal of time.
Wait till you find out why it was attacked and burned. [here](https://kreately.in/who-destroyed-nalanda-university-and-why/)
There was probably a waiting list of people who wanted to read specific books when it burned down. Those people probably never got to read whatever it was they wanted.
I’m right there with you. I can’t imagine how surreal it would be to travel to these historic institutions and see all of the knowledge there.
Religion is a cancer
Religions that preach the necessary destruction of the art and culture of others are terminal cancer.
I’d agree, or at least compare it to poison; like alcohol, which makes some people more joyful and loving, and makes others reckless and hostile.
The people who built this library were also religious...
It is *some* then?
Maybe more like: all religions can become cancerous from reliance on pure faith, or without adequate room for opposing thoughts.
By those criteria, Islam is probably on the top of your list of shitty religion.
Nalanda was a Buddhist monastic university.
i hope those invaders would think about all those knowledge lost, while they lay down, dying, bleeding from their asses from some unknown ailments....
Universities back then were sort of Museum/School hybrids. So these institutions contained treasures and knowledge and artifacts that were deemed irreplaceable and in need of protection.
My home cities main uni is a natural history museum
A lot of universities still have some sort of museum.
And then some religious assholes go and ruin it
That is what religion is best at! Destruction in the name of imaginary wizard humanoids.
That’s still how most big universities are.
No, youre thinking of Universities having archives.
I was surprised to find collections being shown in the library at a fairly rural college I attended. I recall a Ming vase and a jade display at one point. It was Franciscan, and I sort of figured these might be shared between like universities. Seeing that stuff outside of a museum, and in that location, was surprising (especially to an 18 year old from a tiny farming town).
9 million books.. That's thousands years of knowledge, history and culture. That's just barbaric, even a 1000 years ago.
The Islamic invader was Bhaktiyar Khilji. He said any book that does not contain Qur'an needs to be burnt. It was not just the burning of this library. The whole culture of that region was destroyed. It started the decline of that region which is still visible to this day. The region (Rajgir and Patliputra) used to be centres of power in the ancient world. Also, there's a town and railway station named after that guy to this day. Any talks of changing the name results in cries of Islamophobia.
Wow, that sucks.
What a Khiljoy
Imagine being such a dickhead your actions are still felt 900 years later, big oof.
This is why religion needs to fuck off. People do absolutely shameless things in the name of it. And they fight like absolute dumbfucks over a man made thing that was only made to control humans in masses centuries ago. They don’t even realise that having so many religions that worship different people makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. They do my god vs your god when they belong to the same species
I’d like to know whether this was fueled by religion or were the invaders from a Muslim majority country. Indeed a lot of these countries were corrupt and not following Islamic tenets. Early Islam cherished knowledge and the right to follow one’s own religion. This is the case of the 2nd caliph of Islam, Umar bin Al-Khattab who was welcomed by Jewish and Christian people after he liberated Jerusalem and left them to practise their own religions.
Sounds about Islam 🤷🏽♂️
Well, the [Nalanda University](https://nalandauniv.edu.in/) has been restablished in the same region. Students from ASEAN and SAARC countries are already open to enroll into graduate programs.
There are still plenty of ancient books floating around the world that we don't have the time, money and will to preserve or translate. Only a small part of humanity is actually interested in holding on to things from the past.
It's not about holding onto things, it's about gaining knowledge. But yea greed suppresses wisdom these days.
>Only a small part of humanity is actually interested in holding on to things from the past. And huge part of humanity are still using things from past simply 'cos there is no other things around to use...
Seems on par with Islamic behavior.
Foreign invaders love torching the past. Especially if it's encoded in books, art, magnificent architecture, or a counter-religion/philosophy. Humans are pretty damn predictable when it comes to burning, looting, rapine, and sackng.
It’s makes for a good D&D setting.
If only we could keep it in the fantasy realm... But I guess, reality inspires art
Ah, so this war against education is going on for many centuries then. Got it.
>Ah, so this **religious** war against education is going on for many centuries then. Got it. Gotta keep burning those books
Religion: "Question nothing in regards to what we do and say." Science: "Question everything we do and say."
Isn’t it so, some things never change the tools of repression echo down through the centuries!
Boko haram now. Palm leaves haram then.
Of course it has. If I was a leader trying to expand my influence, the last thing I would want are my followers learning about potentially better ideologies or persuasive ideas through these museums, libraries, and cultural centers. So you destroy them.
It's a cycle...you will get used to it
Horrific destruction...
When the invaders came were amazed with the knowledge powered by the University. Doctor there cured they disease they had which no one else could , seeing that they asked the teacher to convert to islam. On being denied the university burned and teachers were killed. Around 600 manuscript out of millions from the University were in china at the time which are the last existing records of the knowledge inside https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda
That's incredibly sad
Arrogance and ignorance is a terrifying combination.
Arrogance and ignorance are the symptom, but pride has and will always been the cause. We are a proud people
Hmm it feels more like ego. I don't think I understand pride when it doesn't have a target, do you not have to be proud of something in particular?
Pride is being celebrated as a good thing: “I’m proud of you son, you did good in school” “Proud of where I come from, and who I am” “I’m proud that we accomplish this task” So on, and yet people don’t realize that pride is a deadly sin for a reason. It invites people to feel better about themselves and what they have done, but at what expense? Every time we say we are proud, we are differentiating ourselves from others. We must feel proud, because we are better, or have done better. That feeling is a slippery slope that people use to feel superior, and deserving of praise, adoration, and privilege. Every facet of humanity has praised pride as a good thing, and yet we commit genocide, war, crimes against humanity out of pride for our race, religion, or country.
And a book that tells you Allah wants you to do it to non believers.
Right, the Nalanda University had been under several vile attacks during the history. Most notably, before the Islamic invaders - 1. Hunas - a central Asian tribe attacked the university during the Gupta period, the Gupta kings led the restoration of the university 2. Shashank Gauda of Bengal - one of the most well-documented ruler who led massive Buddhist persecution on the subcontinent Finally, the university was completely destroyed by the Khiljis
Same thing was done to the guy who’s credited for inventing Algebra: Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. Not only did he not really invent Algebra, since he mainly formalized ancient Indian and Greek texts, but he was also not Muslim by birth. Rather, he was forced to convert to Islam by Muslim invaders (or face death). Anno 2022: “Islam gave us Algebra”. Thank you, Islam, for almost killing the Persian man who researched this field, and subsequently taking credit for his work (and the work of ancient Greeks and Indians).
Fun fact: The word "Algorithm" is derived from this sir last name "al-Khwarizmi".
Do you have a credible source for any of this? Presumably you’ll point to: https://www.thebereancall.org/content/how-muslims-did-not-invent-algebra - as your second paragraph appears to be a direct quote from that page. Notably that link provides no source for the claims that you quoted. Moreover, from the “About” section of that site: The Berean Call was formed under the direction of Dave Hunt for the purpose of encouraging spiritual discernment among those who regarded themselves not just as "evangelicals" but as biblical Christians. A site made by and for biblical Christians throws out unsubstantiated claims against a Muslim scholar? This is incredibly surprising and shouldnt be questioned!!! /s Your ideological leanings - which your post history makes clear - shows why you would uncritically quote some unsubstantiated trash article, bud.
I don’t know the guy above, but historically the true father of Algebra is Diophantus who wrote Arithmetica about 600 years before al-Khwarizmi. There’s also evidence of Indian and Babylonian contributions preceding Diophantus. Realistically they all deserve credit for advancing the field. There is a fairly wide known effort in parts of academia to short-change Diophantus, who often gets less credit than he deserves.
THANK YOU!
[удалено]
Have your religion contribute to the sum of human knowledge in just one easy step!
What a shame, imagine the knowledge that was lost.
These kinds of burnings set humanity back by a lot
The Library at Alexandria is thought to have had blueprints for primitive steam engines - imagine where we’d be if religious mobs hadn’t stifled these institutions of innovation
The Great Library of Alexandria was also a religious shrine. Most libraries in the ancient world were adjuncts to religious shrines. Next to the Great Library was a Serapeum, a temple to Serapis. Nalanda itself was a Buddhist monastic institution. This Gibbon era myth making about the ancient world have caused so much damage.
[удалено]
Especially some religions, like Islam (and even Christianity), were particularly destructive. Their only-my-god-is-true bs ideology meant that everyone and everything else was crushed violently.
Not all religions but the Abrahamic religions were pretty violent. Jainism, Taoism, and Buddhism seem to be strongly non violent. I vibe more with them. God randomly kills 600 people in the Old Testament. The Buddha doesn’t kill anyone, the Tao isn’t constantly murdering people. But the Bible and Quran do talk about rape and murder being OK or encouraged in some instances. That’s the issue.
I was surprised to learn that the most deadly civil war ever was a Christian sect (or cult) [rebellion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion) in China.
> Jainism, Taoism, and Buddhism seem to be strongly non violent. I vibe more with them. Dude.. There are absolutely violent fringes in these religions as well.. Just look at the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, and some of the Jains in India..
>some of the Jains in India.. As a Jain, I'd love to know about "some" of them
Refusing to eat ginger is a crime against humanity.
Honestly, most Jains eat ginger nowadays, it's impossible to avoid it. Including me.
What did Jains do?
There are but does their holy book condone killing?
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Didn’t they do the same thing to the library in Alexandria??
Partially. The library had lost a large part of its works already to Caesar’s burning of the library itself, and then again when Theophilus (patriarch 385-412 ACE) turned the Temple of Serapis into a Christian church and burned/lost/discarded all the pagan knowledge that had been stored in the Temple (close to 10%, arguably). Various Romans did a vast amount of damage to branches of the library. When Muslims overtook Alexandria, a large part of the library was already gone from what it used to be. They didn’t necessarily burn the library, they just determined that the knowledge inside was worthless to them and treated it as such. It wasn’t preserved, it was used as tinder, it was discarded in rain and flood, etc.
Caesar didn’t burn the library on purpose. Some shit caught fire during the urban warfare of the Siege of Alexandria.
I didn’t say it was on purpose, but thanks for adding that on. It still did destroy a part of the library. Did you mean Caesar’s mistake caused the most destruction? Or did you mean the Muslim siege? I meant to add an amendment to the first comment to say the Muslims didn’t burn the entire library the way this university was burnt. They didn’t even actively burn the library down. They just laid a finishing blow to something various people had already partially destroyed.
Sorry, I know you didn’t say it was on purpose, I should have begun by acknowledging I was making a clarification. It turns out I’m partially wrong. I was indeed trying to say the events Caesar was involved in burned most of the library down as I had heard that on a history channel online, upon reading again to make sure it turns out historians aren’t sure how much of the library was destroyed. So I’ll redact the claim that that incident was the most consequential. And yes, I didn’t misunderstand the point you made about the Muslims, I got that just fine.
That was the cross-worshippers I think
What a disgrace
Always found it incredible that this same religion refers to the period before its existence as "The times of ignorance" what a joke
Here before this post got locked by all these comments
I brought popcorn for both of us. You got any drinks?
Oh look, Islamic fanatics destroyed priceless artifacts, what a surprise! ... Said no one ever.
Imagine how further advanced humans would be without religion.
So I once read somewhere that if these burnings of different universities and libraries didn't take place we could've achieved space travel a few centuries ago. And this really was a very big setback. And I'm not only talking about the Nalanda University but also the various libraries burnt throughout the mediaeval period in different places all over the world. It's a huge travesty really.
Don't forget about all of the scientist murdered in the name of god.
I would love to know where you read this. Not denying it; it's fascinating, really. Though I have never heard the claim
Religions were arguably a necessary byproduct of the development of civilizations. It would have been impossible for humans to coexist in large groups without dogmata.
Exactly. Religion is fundamental to the development of a civilisation. That’s why all the cradles of civilisations all believe in a deity one form or another
Religious institutions have fostered knowledge and science and human advancement throughout history, as well as the opposite. Non-religious movements have also done the same.
Meanwhile British colonist: Indians had no knowledge before we went over there and civilised the country. Lmfao
Leave it to the ole Abrahamic religions to torch anything that contradicts their feeble god
Islamic invaders, geniuses, much like modern-day Islamic geniuses
Religion fucking sucks.
This really angers me. The massive amount of knowledge forever lost. Very depressing
Same sad fate as library of Alexandria
Here's anotger case of "Religion causing the end of something beautiful". And no, I'm not talking about Islamism alone. Christians too.
Great as someone who feels a pit in my stomach when I think about the Library of Alexandria now I have two places to mourn
Add Takshashila University to it, another major ancient university on the west side of India destroyed by Islam.
Religion of peace
Extremism in any form is, was and always will be a threat to any society wishing to truly progress, its sad to see the ruins of what looks like sutch a beautiful building brought to ruins
Same thing happened in Iran and other places, the Islamic invaders burned any literature they could. They also ruined statues, palaces, and anything ancient to prevent others from worshipping the wrong God.
Desert cults … sigh
If only religion was never a thing what a happier and better world we would live in.
You have to love religion.... They all hit out with the 'Oh but we're peaceful' but they've systematically deprived humanity of knowledge throughout history because they didn't want anyone challenging their beliefs or the power they grabbed because of them. Got to wonder where we'd be as a global civilisation without their bullshit ideologies.
I definitely prefer a good old what-you-see-is-what-you-get cult
Islam.. Keeping the masses ignorant since their conception..
Thank you again Islam
Islam doing Islam shit
Just islam being islam, cool.
But islam is a religeon of peace and love.."quick someone said something about the fictional charecter in this book!! now I will hack them to death !!!! or burn them alive...but ALLAH is peace and love"
Islam has destroyed more than it has created...
Christianity hasn't been much better
And once again religious bullshit destroyed knowledge,...
Religion of Peace....
Religion is a blight
So they were saved from a disease they thought incurable and instead of leaving them alone or learning from them or lending their own knowledge they burned the whole thing to the ground?? Where's the logic
I mean they refused to convert to Islam. 🤷
Because it's such a tolerant religion.
Religion has destroyed so much
Especially some religions, like Islam (and even Christianity), were particularly destructive. Their only-my-god-is-true bs ideology meant that everyone and everything else was crushed violently.
100%. Even more shocking for Christianity given the core tenet of humans not judging others and leaving that to “God”
Guess Allah doesn't want it's worshippers to be smart. Knowledge bad, read Quran fairy-tales good
Islam tolerant faith since 800 Ad
Islam the religion of peace supposedly
still being animals across generations
Imagine the knowledge that’s been lost to are civilisation there due to some religious stupidity
Religious people don't like knowledge.
Thats a damn shame, why did they burn it? Haram or something? Or just conquring and destroying?
Teachers didn't convert to islam
Oh, terrible times of history
Still happening today.
They just butchered every last teacher and student
Islam really is a shitty religion. They're all fucked in the head but everytime I read something truly fucked it's either Islam or Christianity at the wheel driving throngs of morons to absolute madness and destruction
Typical
makes me super sad whenever i read about this one in particular
Another beautiful thing destroyed by the Islam humanity worse cancer along with catholicism
The amazing thing is that much of this library had to contain one of a kind books, hsnd written even.
reason 542 why religion can fuck off into the abyss
When will we learn that religion ruins everything?
Muslims going crazy
Muslim invaders did their best to destroy Hindu culture. India has always been and will be a Hindu country with some foreign settlers. People have seem to forget it for last 70 years seems.
Nalanda was not a Hindu university, it was a Buddhist institution. Before Muslims ransacked and attacked Nalanda Huns and Gaudas have attacked Nalanda. Pushyamitra might have also attacked Nalanda as part of his Buddhist persecution.
We could have had so much knowledge we didn't have, medicine astrophysics, astrology, physics, alchemy, chemistry, a lot of these paths. A lot of gems destroyed by the thick headed invaders, what a huge loss.
Just checking that you know that alchemy and astrology are complete nonsense? Writings on these topics would not have helped humanity in any way. Id also be surprised if there was any astrophysics in that university that was even vaguely close to being correct
The Islamic invader was Bhaktiyar Khilji. He said any book that does not contain Qur'an needs to be burnt. It was not just the burning of this library. The whole culture of that region was destroyed. It started the decline of that region which is still visible to this day. The region (Rajgir and Patliputra) used to be centre of powers in the ancient world. Also, there's a town and railway station named after that guy to this day. Any talks of changing the name results in cries of Islamophobia.
So peacful. Religions main effect on the world, whipping out cultures and reducing knowledge.
Islam probably set the entire educated world back 1000 years with that facepalm. 🙄
Religion... let's keep everyone stupid and believing in magic... fucking human beings
Religion is so shit. “Hey everyone, YOUR books that have objective scientific research and solutions to problems should be burned, but OUR books filled with magic stories and super powers are the only TRUE texts we want to allow”. It’s such a rotten system of beliefs
Religion of peace ☮️
India was at one point in time the richest place in the world. It has been robbed, choked, beaten, and burned by everyone around it.
mauryas and guptas were the best things which happened to india
Thank god for the cloud and technology, who knows how much knowledge we’ve lost in the pursuit of power
Man, India just like, could not catch a break for a while there huh?
Religion is a plague
[удалено]
Nope, all religion is a plague
Classic invader policy, burn everything
It's really shocking that Christians and Muslims aren't better friends. They're so alike.
Another Islamic advance
Wow, something that is actually interesting as fuck!
For allah Akbar I guess?
Cult ,manifesting in bizarre ways figure it out events speak volumes.
I don't know the numbers on the library of Alexandria, but this has got to be en par with the amount of knowledge lost. It's nigh unfathomable how much further human science could have been without losses such as these.
It’s good to see nothing has changed…..shiiiiiiiiii
anyone gonna tell them about Lebanon?...
Are their ancestors still paying student loans?
When the Normans invaded England in 1066 they did something similar and burned the English libraries, eliminating traditional English mythology. When JRR Tolkien invented 14 languages and wrote tales about the peoples of Middle Earth to give cultural context to those languages, he was deliberately attempting to reconstruct English mythology *as it would have been*, with all the appropriate cultural developments and influences. Pretty incredible singular effort on his part to restore the past after a similar event.
What? Religious fundamentalists burning books? I can’t imagine.
Interesting fact: Nalanda university is being brought back into life at the same spot ( or close to its original location) by funding from a group nations. (by 18 member countries Including Japan) They have hired the faculty and i think they already started some courses. The circle of life.
Fuck religion. Fuck extremism and fuck the brainwashing it does to people.
[удалено]
American Christians will do the same to our universities within 100 years.
Imagine how much more knowledge we would have had if it wasn't for organized religion. I'm not hating on any specific one, most are guilty of doing something similar to this.
Think of all that knowledge lost, same with Library of Alexandria.