7 Times Humanity Burned Its Knowledge: From Takshashila to Cordoba

1st September 2025

alexandria-library, ancient-libraries, baghdad-house-of-wisdom, civilizations, historical-universities, history-of-education, knowledge-destructions, lost-knowledge, nalanda, takshashila

Imagine if all the knowledge and information stored in your personal computer gets destroyed, if every information on Google gets deleted, all research articles get burned. Our future will never know about Newton, Darwin and Einstein or Alexander, Genghis and Napoleon or even Gates, Jobs and Musk. This isn’t a fantasy. It has already happened many times in human history.

Introduction

In the ages before Search Engines and Websites, information was stored mainly in the form of books or manuscripts. Knowledge was written in pages and stored for centuries. But there came times when this knowledge was destroyed through the destruction of the libraries or universities where it was preserved. Much information was lost through these sinful acts, due to which many facts of the ancient worlds are still a mystery to us. This blog talks about seven such instances where an important center of knowledge was raided, pillaged and destroyed.

1. Takshashila (5th century BCE to 5th century CE)

The University of Takshashila was situated in the Mahajanapada (Great State) of Gandhara (modern north western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan), and acted as the centre for higher studies for the people of India from 5th century BCE to 5th century CE. It started as a source of Vedic knowledge, but later incorporated Buddhist teachings in it. It also taught subjects including mathematics, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, politics, literature and military science. It combined religious and secular studies around monasteries and later attracted students from all across Asia through trade routes. Another name for it was Chu-cha-shi-lo according to Chinese accounts. According to legends, the entire city was built by Taksha, the son of Bharata who was the younger brother of Rama, the hero of the Ramayana from which it got its name. It also had famous teachers like Panini(~5th century BCE) who wrote Astadhyayi – a book containing a detailed system of the composition and usage of Classical Sanskrit Grammar. Another important teacher was Chanakya(4th century BCE) who wrote the famous book on statecraft Arthashastra which is still studied in business and political schools. It was Chanakya who is said to mentor Chandragupta Maurya in the Gandhara region itself to build the first and greatest Indian empire, the Maurya Empire. Important students of Takshashila include emperor Chandragupta Maurya himself and Charaka(~1st century BCE) , the Indian Physician known for his medical book Charaka Samhita which is one of the foundational texts on Ayurveda (Indian Alternative medicine). The university along with the entire region came under patronage of many empires such as the Achaemenids(5th-4th century BCE), Greeks(4th century BCE), Mauryas(4th-2nd century BCE), Indo-Greeks(2nd century BCE), Scythians(2nd-1st century BCE), Parthians(1st century BCE -1st century CE), Kushans(1st-5th century CE) and finally getting destroyed under the White Huns(5th century CE). The Hunnic king Mihirakula is said to have sacked and destroyed the university completely due to his anti buddhist stance, killing monks, scholars and destroying libraries respectively.

2. Library of Alexandria (3rd century BCE to 4th century CE)

The Library of Alexandria was established by the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt(305-30 BCE)in Alexandria, Egypt around the 3rd century BCE. It was proposed by Ptolemy I Soter, the founder of the dynasty and of the generals of Alexander the Great. It is generally considered that it was later completed by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. It was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The library was part of the Mouseion of Alexandria, an institute of higher learning in the ancient world. It is stated that the library contained around 500,000 books. Many important intellectuals of the Hellenistic world worked in this library including Apollonius of Rhodes(3rd century BCE) who wrote the epic poem Argonautica(the legend of Jason and the Argonauts and their adventure for the Golden Fleece), Eratosthenes of Cyrene(3rd century BCE) who calculate the circumference of the earth with quite precision, Hero of Alexandria(2nd century CE) who first recorded steam engine etc. Other prominent figures associated with the library include the famous mathematician Euclid (3rd century BCE) also known as the father of Geometry, Archimedes of Syracuse (3rd century BCE) the world famous engineer and inventor. The Library flourished under the Ptolemaic rule till 1st century BCE after which it was patronized by the Romans. The library is said to be destroyed three times- first by the Roman general Julius Caesar(1st century BCE) during his conquest of Egypt in 48 BCE, 2nd time by the christian archbishop Theophilus(4th century CE) during his attack on the library to wipe out the pagan worshippers, and the 3rd time by the Arab Muslims under the Caliph Umar(7th century CE), although the third destruction is now considered to be a fabricated story by most historians.

3. Gundeshapur (3rd to 7th century CE)

Gundeshapur was an intellectual centre in ancient Persia established by the Sasanian Emperor Shapur I(240-270 CE). It boasted of having the world’s first teaching hospital and also an academy where scholars from Greek, Rome, India and China came to study. The Academy of Gondishapur taught medicine, mathematics,astronomy, philosophy and theology. Under Emperor Khosrow I(6th century CE) it flourished to a great height and became the solitary Medical Capital of the World. Famous students from the academy included Borzuya(6th century CE) also known for translating the Indian fable collection called Panchatantra from Sanskrit to Pahlavi and Nafi ibn al-Harith(7th century CE), an Arab who studied in Gondishapur to become an important physician in the early Islamic period. The academy and the city were destroyed during the Islamic conquest of Persia(mid 7th century CE) and most of its medical knowledge was lost, although few reached Baghdad through the raiders.

4. Imperial Library of Constantinople (4th to 13th century CE)

The Imperial Library of Constantinople was constructed around 357 CE under the patronage of the Roman Emperor Constantius II to preserve early Judeo-Christian scriptures by copying deteriorating papyrus scrolls onto parchment. It also preserved works of Aristotle, Plato, Homer etc. that might have been lost forever. The library preserved around 120,000 books before being destroyed by a fire in 475 CE after which it was rebuilt. Agathon the Reader was the first librarian of Constantinople, who was also the reporter of the Third Council of Constantinople. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204, the library was destroyed by the Franks and Venetians during the Fourth Crusade. Ironically it was the same christians who destroyed the library that was constructed to protect their own ancient knowledge.

5. Nalanda (5th to 12th century CE)

Nalanda Mahavihara(Greater Monastery) was an ancient university situated in Magadha(present day Bihar, India). It was constructed by the Gupta Emperor Kumaragupta I around the early 5th century CE. It flourished as a Buddhist monastery particularly of the Mahayana branch. Important students included Buddhist scholars like Dharmapala, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu and even the Chinese scholar Xuanzang. Apart from Buddhist studies the university also gave education in vedas, grammar, medicine, logic, mathematics, astronomy etc. The famous Indian astronomer Aryabhata(late 5th century CE) known for his book Aryabhatiya in which he covers arithmetics, algebra, trigonometry, quadratic equations, table of sines and most famously the place value system with zero is also supposed to have studied there. The university was under patronage by the Emperors of the Guptas, the Pushyabhutis and the Palas. The university was destroyed during the late 12th century CE. Traditionally the cause of destruction is cited as arson orchestrated by the Turko-Afghan military general Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji who served the Ghurid Emperor Muhammad of Ghor when invading India around the same time. It is said that the libraries in the university burned for months. With the fire, much ethnic Indian knowledge was destroyed.

6. House of Wisdom, Baghdad (8th to 13th century CE)

The House of Wisdom or Bayt al-Hikmah in Arabic was the Grand Library of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age between 8th to 13th century CE. It was a public library and renowned centre of learning under the Abbasid Caliphate founded by its fifth Caliph Harun al-Rashid(786 to 809 CE). It contained knowledge from all over the known world- from Greek Classics to Indian Mathematics. It was an important centre for philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and optics. Its splendour was immortalized in The Thousand and One Nights(A collection of Middle Eastern stories containing famous characters like Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor). Important scholars associated with the House of Wisdom included the zoologist Al-Jahiz(8th-9th century CE) who wrote the books like Kitab al-Hayawan(Book of the Animal) and Kitab al-Bukhala(Book of the Misers), the polymath al-Kindi(9th century CE) who wrote on subjects from astronomy to optics to cryptography, al-Ghazali(11th-12th century CE) the famous political philosopher and theologist. It acted as the centre of Islamic knowledge for more than four centuries until it was destroyed by Hulagu Khan of the Mongol Empire during the Siege of Baghdad in 1258 CE.

7. Cordoba Library (9th to 11th century CE)

The Library at Cordoba (Spain) was an intellectual centre set up by the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba around the early 10th century CE. It also became the first large library of western Europe. It became a centre of multicultural learning where subjects like law, history, literature, medicine and mathematics were studied. Ancient Greek texts were translated in Hebrew, Latin and Arabic. Important people to have studied there included the polymath Abbas ibn Firnas(9th century CE) who designed reading stones using glasses (early spectacles) and also designed the al-Maqata, a water clock which was an early form of a metronome. It also helped in bringing the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Cordoba. But during the civil wars around 1009 CE, the mobs burned down the library to ashes destroying centuries of learning sliding Europe deeper into the Dark Ages.

Reflection and Conclusion

Today due to digital archives and the invention of search engines and AIs, we have become unaware of the importance of preservation of knowledge. Due to books, libraries and universities burned down and destroyed in the past, we may never recover the invaluable knowledge that is lost forever. So it is the responsibility of each of us to preserve the knowledge available to us so that the same destruction of Nalanda or Baghdad does not repeat itself.

That’s all for this blog. Obviously there are many more libraries and universities in China, India, Persia, Mesoamerica and many others that I didn’t mention due to the blog becoming too lengthy. The idea of the blog was to spread awareness about the value of information and the need for preserving it. Thank you all. If you like this blog please like and share and do comment what you think about knowledge restoration and preservation.