Alexandria: The City That Changed the World

Historian Issa (Shakespeare and Terrorism) delivers a lively chronicle of one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities from its beginnings almost two and a half millennia ago to the present. Founded by Alexander the Great on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Egypt at the western edge of the Nile River delta, Alexandria started as a fishing village and became a place where “East and West could meet.” Issa highlights the Ptolemaic rulers who succeeded Alexander and turned the city into the Hellenistic capital with palaces and temples; the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; and the city’s Great Library and the Alexandrian Museum, which attracted scholars from around the world. Among other accomplishments, these scholars “developed geometry... proved the earth isn’t flat... invented the steam engine,” and collated and emended classical texts from many traditions, including Hindu, Jewish, and Zoroastrian. Julius Caesar’s siege in 47 BCE and Octavian’s showdown against Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Alexandria in 30 BCE brought the city under Roman rule, until the Arab Rashidun Caliphate captured it in 642 CE. Issa vividly recounts subsequent invasions by the Crusaders, Ottomans, French, and British, and shows how in the modern era Alexandria continued in its role as a cultural hub and social and religious melting pot. This impressively researched account reveals a captivating city through the ages. (Jan.)