640. Alexandria taken from the Greeks, by the Saracens, under Amri,
after a siege of 14 months. "I have taken," he addressed the caliph
Omar, "the great city of the west. It is impossible for me to enumerate
the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself with
observing that it contains 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theatres, or
places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and
40,000 tributary Jews." It is well known that the second Alexandrian
library, established by Cleopatra, was then destroyed, to feed the
baths. The collection consisted of 300,000 volumes, and those 200,000
rolls, brought by Mark Antony from Pergamus, with the accumulation of
seven centuries.