The survival rate of ancient literature

[Carlton Bach]

Ah well, one can only imagine what fantasies the conquered concoct about those who conquer them!

OInly saw that now. The funny bit about the story of Caliph OMar is that it wasn't invented by the Copts. As far as we know, it was invented by arabophone Muslims who regarded themselves as descendants of the Caliph, and they meant it in a good way. They were, of course, at the time familiar with the tradition of a great library at Alexandria so they could spin the tale around it (IIRC the Alexandrina played no role in Coptic folklore before it became politicised in the nineteenth century). The apparent intent behind it was to show 'soft' contemporaries how strong in faith and alert to temptation their glorious ancestors were.

Similarly, Frankish authors seeing nobody north of the Seine spoke much Latin any more wrote that their ancestors had killed all the Romans, never dreaming what French nationalist historians would do with that tidbit after 1871. They thought 'my great-granddaddy could beat up your great-granddaddy' was a good thing to preserve for posterity.