Context: The Library of Alexandria was famously burnt down by Julius Caesar’s troops as they set fire to some ships docked in the port. More likely is that it only burnt down one of the libraries warehouses, the Library itself was not destroyed and remained active for centuries, slowly losing it’s fame and significance as it declined.

During the Arab conquest, it is said that they fully burnt the books in the library, but such sources for this claim first appear 500 years after the conquest and are most likely political slander rather than reality.