For the 94th birthday
Mostafa El-Abbadi: Google honors famous historian with a doodle
The October 10 Google Doodle features Egyptologist Mostafa El-Abbadi
© Screen shot Google
On October 10th, Google honors the famous Egyptologist Mostafa El-Abbadi with a doodle. The historian would have been 94 years old that day. He is known as the initiator of the revival of the Library of Alexandria.
Today, October 10, Mostafa El-Abbadi would have been 94 years old. Google honors the famous historian, who died in Alexandria in 2017 at the age of 88, with a doodle. The Egyptologist dealt intensively with the library of Alexandria. Google wrote in a blog entry that he played a leading role in rebuilding it.
In the drawing that the company is dedicating to El-Abbadi, he is seen in front of a bookshelf and holding a book. In the right half of the picture, the lighthouse of Alexandria and the library building are reminiscent of his life’s work.
The most important ancient library
Mostafa El-Abbadi was born on October 10, 1928 in Cairo. He studied Greco-Roman history at the University of Alexandria and Cambridge University. As an Egyptologist, he has repeatedly suggested that the library be rebuilt or reorganized, according to the Google blog entry.
The Goethe-Institut writes that modern historians agree that this gigantic library was the most important ancient library in the world. For centuries this structure has stood in Alexandria with an estimated number of more than half a million handwritten scrolls and books, a medical school, several laboratories and even botanical and zoological gardens.
El-Abbadi’s suggestion was eventually heard. The professor found a supporter in UNESCO. Together with the Egyptian government and other organizations, the project was implemented within 15 years. Google writes: “In the end, it became a facility with over eight million books spread over seven floors, which in turn house four individual museums and even a planetarium.”
New construction of the Library of Alexandria
© F. Anthea Schaap / Imago Images
However, El-Abbadi was not present when the modern library opened in 2002. Hosni Mubarak’s government at the time had not invited him.
Mostafa El-Abbadi: “We have to learn to see everything as it is”
The Goethe-Institut quotes from conversations with El-Abbadi, who said of the Alexandria library that it was not so unique because it was the first of its kind. “But because it was the only library of its time that was truly universal.” So when asked what lessons we can draw from the history of the ancient library, he replied: “We must learn to look at everything as it is, and not as we are instructed.”
Google repeatedly honors well-known personalities with its doodles in the form of small drawings and animations. Earlier this year, for example, the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Read more about this here.
Sources: Google, The New York Times, Goethe Institute