The first known library of the world dates back to the 7th century B.C. built by the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal. That should be almost 2700+ years ago, but I’m not confident about the accuracy of it, I’ve never been able to figure out AD and BC without a chance of error.
Paper was invented 800 years after, so till then clay tablets served as paper, and it were these tablets with cuneiform inscription (the ancient script used in Mesopotamia), 30,000 in number, organized according to subject matter that constituted this library in Nineveh – modern day Iraq. Ashurbanipal’s reign has been recorded in the pages of history for things good and bad, decisions and actions that were debatable. But in that person was someone who imagined that if wisdom was recorded, it would amalgamate through the years, to compound and evolve.
Although in those times the purpose of it was for ‘Royal contemplation’ and not accessible to common public, but it was the inception of an idea that would bring about unimaginable change. May be at some point we will delve into the history and evolution of libraries, but for now I’m intrigued with the thought that started one.
Knowledge when shared compounds
The early documents look simple and obvious to our minds today, but at that time they were instrumental in the growth of early societies. Key pieces of information such as medical diagnosis, natural calamities and the solution after, harvest inventories, change seasons and climate, laws that governed and many such things that impacted life were recorded, so that they could be retrieved when needed. Access to this knowledge of what worked and what didn’t, helped save time, they didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, instead they would improve upon what had been found or done and then add their solutions to the records. In modern times, we would call it benchmarking and learning from Best Practices.
Learning feeds thoughts, thoughts feed growth
Ptolemy I Soter who succeeded Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC, started to establish the city of Alexandria as a centre of learning, which led to the library of Alexandria – an intellectual haven of the ancient times. It is said to have had over 500,000 papyrus scrolls containing texts on history, law, mathematics, science and literature. The library of Alexandria has an associated research institute, possibly the first of its kinds where scholars from around the Mediterranean, lived on a scholarship. It was home to names like Strabo, Euclid and Archimedes among many. A place that enabled great minds to come together, observe, absorb, think, and introspect along with access to the thoughts of so many before them, whose work was recorded in those scrolls. One can only imagine how magical it would have been, drowning into the vastness, in their quest for knowledge, only to emerge smarter, wiser, a person different from the one before. No amount of reading on our own in our homes can equate to that.
Guiding one to the source is the noblest of all
The ancient libraries resembled legal record rooms of today – hundreds of thousands of papyrus and vellum scrolls, a maze wonderful enough for people like us to get lost. It was in these times that a system to organise these scrolls was developed, times dating back to the Han Dynasty. It started with a seven-part classification – Confucian classics, philosophy, prose and poetry, military prose, scientific and occult writings, summaries, and medicine and evolved into a system categorising writings into four types – classics, history, philosophy, and miscellaneous works. And there were scholars who specialised in these systems. Scholars who would then guide seekers of knowledge to the source. Scholars who possibly have been forgotten by history but were the silent catalyst for many discoveries that history took pride to record, making us think of the zillions of people who work behind the scenes, playing a part that by no means is less important. People who are never acknowledged, never recognised.
The ones who disappeared without acknowledgement were no lesser
In the middle ages, religious institutions began to take over the functions of ancient government and private libraries. In Western Europe, Catholic monks took an active role in collecting and creating written texts, and monasteries made up the main libraries. In Muslim countries, Imams and other scholars used printing techniques developed by Chinese scholars to create collections of written texts. Early libraries were created to house Qur’anic texts, along with early developments in astronomy and mathematics by Arabic scholars. The strong religious overtones makes one wonder, what about those who didn’t subscribe to the majoritarian belief. Their work may have never been acknowledged, or worse, could have been destroyed or credited to someone else, just because they didn’t follow the religion. History tells us a similar story about emperor Shih huang-ti, a member of the Ch’in dynasty, ruler of the first unified Chinese empire, who ordered that historical records other than those of the Ch’in be destroyed, so that history might be seen to begin with his dynasty. Beyond the people we recognise, whose achievements we celebrate, are many who may be equally bright if not more.
It’s about what you know, not what you show
Walk into a library and you see the regulars, who find the quietest corner to be lost in their own world. Among these regulars, there would be an exchange of glances, may be a smile but seldom words, because silence is the decorum of the library. You either sit there to read, just another person among many, or you issue a book temporarily, to read and return. There is no decorating the bookshelves, no conversation about a specific title, and the FOMO of not having read one. All you have is the quality of your thoughts and uniqueness of your perspective. That which one gets only by the depth and breadth of their knowledge. In these times when bookshelves have become the most sought after backgrounds on our video calls, the idea of reading as an exploration or may be just for the joy of reading is the true freedom, we all may be looking for.
The first library that I visited was in Gaya, India. I remember high walls with books stacked up to the ceiling, and people hunched over a book, in a world of their own, oblivious of the surroundings, as if none of it mattered, and I remember a gentle old man taking us two 11 year olds around, guiding how to explore and select a book of our choice. I remember being fascinated, it was magical.
It was far from home and we couldn’t go there often, I wished for something like that to be closer to home, so that I could walk over to the place, at my own will, and that has made me wonder, why don’t we build more libraries. Imagine the power of building a place where people of all ages, irrespective of their background, income category, family, age, stream of study, could learn. The power of accessibility, the freedom to learn, to grow. A world where people didn’t have to build bookshelves and create zoom backgrounds to look important and knowledgeable, instead they just needed a card, card with entries of the titles they read, make their own for a while and then return, the power of accessibility, the power to learn.
