WSC Social Studies Breaking World Records (this does not include the time capsule part)

Breaking World Records

Library of AlexandriaA library located in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria is a city first established by Alexander the Great, a Greek guy who decided to conquer Europe and the middle east. His successor, pharaoh Ptolemy I, decided to build a library in the city. It was called “the Royal Library in Alexandria” in the 3rd century bc. Was also called Museum of Alexandria, Greek Mouseion, “seat of the muses”, and was at first place a shrine of muses, aka goddesses from Greek mythology, based on the Lyceum of Aristotle, a shrine he made for Apollo. Only then, it was considered a library, as it was a lecture area with gardens, a zoo, and a shrine for each of the nine muses. It had over half a million documents from countries conquered by the Persian empire, soon conquered by Alexander the Great. It had a daughter library called “the Temple of Serapis” that held 10% of its documents. It was somehow lost, and even worse, we don’t know how.

Impostor I - Julius CaesarThe first person who is blamed for the destruction  of the Museum of Alexandria is Julius Caesar. Basically two hundred years after the library was established, the Greek empire was replaced with the Roman empire, led by the guy who crowned himself Julius Caesar. Caesar, of course, wasn’t a fan of powerful people being traitors, and so when Pompey (not linked to the city of Pompeii) stabbed him on the back (metaphorically), Pompey was on the run, and went to hide in Alexandria, a place conquered by the empire. Caesar ordered the soldiers there to set fire to the ship harbor there, for Pompey not to escape, but sadly the fire spread into the Library of Alexandria too, and destroyed it. The main case against that story is that if Caesar would’ve really done that, it’d probably be more documented, as he was one of the most powerful people in history.

Impostor II - TheophilusIn Edward Gibbon’s book, “the fall of the Roman Empire”, he gives a version of his own to the disappearance of Greek Mouseion. So six hundred years after the establishment of the library, there was a patriarch, kind of like Rabbi Kanievski in Israel, but Christian, called Theophilus. During his reign he decided to convert the Temple of Serapis into a Christian Church, and so 10% of the library’s documents were destroyed. Then after he died his nephew took control, and because the lack of ruling there was a tight conflict between Jews, Christians and Pagans, led to Hypatia, a female philosopher and the daughter of the last Library of Alexandria being murdered on the street, but still people blame the death on Theophilus, although he died sooner.

Impostor III - Moslem Caliph OmarBasically Bishop Gregory says that eight hundred years after the establishment of the Library of Alexandria the Muslims, a bunch of rich muslim people took control of Alexandria. As muslims, they loved the Quran. Caliph Omar made a big brain move by thinking with himself that the library isn’t necessary. If it contradicts the Quran, then it should be destroyed. If it has the same ideas as the Quran, it is literally not necessary as the Quran already exists. So hedecided to use the texts as tinder to his bathhouses of the city.

The House of WisdomA library also known by the names “Khizanat-al-Hikma”, “Storehouse of Wisdom”, “Bayt al hikmah”, that had a lot of books in it, but was then destroyed. Unlike the Library of Alexandria, the House of Wisdom is known for its destroyer. House of Wisdom was established in 600 AD, by Muawiyah I, a Caliph in the Umayyad Dynasty, and as a bibliophile, a book lover, he collected a lot of books in Damascus. With the help of Christian and Persian scholars, the Umayyads translated all of their collection to Arabic, and all of these books opened a window of opportunity for the Arab world, as it educated them. Soon the Abbasid Dynasty succeeded the Umayyads, and the Caliph Al-Mansur moved the House of Wisdom to Baghdad instead of Damascus. Al-Mansur made changes in the library, as he made it bigger and more magnificent, attracting scholars from all over the world. Then came Caliph Al-Mamun, who was fond of scientific knowledge that he preferred scientific works over other war spoils. Scholars from all over the world, such as the Banu Musa brothers, Al-Jahiz, Al-Kindi, and Al-Battani came to the House of Wisdom to share their knowledge. \n In 1258 the Mongols in the command of Hulagu Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, invaded Baghdad for thirteen days, after the current Abbasid Caliph didn’t agree to help the Mongols against fighting Persia. As a result the Caliph was immediately executed, while the locals were massacred on a large scale, and during the siege all of the books from the House of Wisdom were sadly thrown into the Tigris River, and the amount of books thrown was so enormous that a bridge could be formed using those books in water alone - supporting a man mounted on a horse. The only books that remained from this library were the ones that Nasir-al-Din-al-Tulsi took along with him to Maragheh before the attack.

What Stopped Mongol Hordes From Conquering EuropeAs we all know Genghis Khan was very good at conquering, and then he died and gave his son (Ogodei) a LOT of land, but his son did pretty well, conquering Hungary. And some other stuff. After Ogodei’s death his nephew took over the western campaign but never returned, so Ogodei’s wife, Toregene, took power as the Great Khatun. It turns out that the western horde turned back, probably due to damp weather which caused food shortages. (similar story to Napoleon's retreat from Moscow) It's likely that Ogodei's commanders chose a southern route because of its relatively drier condition. So what happened after Ogodei’s death? The Mongols were split and never reunified.

A History of Tripitaka KoreanaAka the biggest collection of Buddhist texts in the world. Situated in Haeinsa Temple. Tripitaka has been used by scholars as the authority of Zen Buddhism. It was destroyed during a Mongol invasion. But later King Gojong ordered the collection to be remade. The woodblocks on which the texts were printed were soaked in boiling water and covered with laka to protect from deterioration, the depositories were constructed to provide ventilation and moderate temperature and humidity. This incredible design has preserved the woodblocks for over 750 years from pests and extreme weather conditions. This design was so good that  the Tripitaka woodblocks were declared a National Treasure of South Korea and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2000, the contents of the Tripitaka Koreana were put into electronic form