Based on the small collections of papyrus found in the tombs, it is believed that the ancient Egyptians collected the texts as part of the elite collections. The inscriptions and manuscripts also contain multiple references to collections of books that were preserved in the so-called "House of Books". There are no architectural remains of any major ancient Egyptian libraries, although they are likely to be found in the main palaces and temples. They include inscriptions in a gallery of the Ramessium temple and another in a room in the Edfu temple, but by virtue of their size and location they were probably used to keep the daily ritual books in the temple.
In the Ptolemaic era, Ptolemy I ordered the establishment of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and Demetrius Valermi provided it with the main collection of the library; Ptolemy II Philadelphia took over the work. And the keenness of the kings who came after him to increase the holdings of the library. Ptolemy III, for example, required all incoming travelers to hand over their books. If these books are not from the library's holdings, they are kept, while the owner receives copies of them cheaply. At the height of its splendor, the library may have housed some 700,000 scrolls, or about 100,000 to 125,000 printed books. By the middle of the third century BC, the original building had become too small, and a group was transferred to the Serapeum; some 42,800 copies and an incomplete manuscript were included.
About forty thousand books were destroyed in the fires that ensued following the dispute between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII in 48 BC. Although Mark Antonyux replaced the Queen with 200,000 copies of Bergamum, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was destroyed by the end of the third century BC during the power struggle in the Roman Empire. The Seraphium, or the "nascent library", was judged to support pagan beliefs; its destruction was Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, based on the prohibition of non-Christian religions issued by Theodosius in 391 CE.
The civil libraries, established in the Greco-Roman era, were accessible to Egypt's Christian people; church libraries were also found in the monasteries. The library of the Monastery of St. Shenouda, in Sohag, was Egypt's greatest Coptic library, but it is now scattered. Hundreds of remains of slavery and papyrus were found at the site of the Monastery of St. Apollo, and may have been a library.
As for the Muslims, they were great books collectors, libraries flourished in their times; it encouraged Islam to learn and to develop knowledge. In addition to the libraries of the palaces of the princes and nobles in Egypt, the mosques and schools in Cairo, especially libraries, were all available to scholars. Each library had a cataloged index of its own collection, with staff performing the work of office secretaries today; clerks, binders and others who sponsored and looked after the books. In AD 395 (AD 1004), the "ruler by the order of God" established the Fatimid Institute of Education called "Dar al-Alam". And donated to the Institute books on a variety of topics; which encouraged the scholars to teach it, and the expense of furnishing it and its employees. It is said that the research institute had in its library more than one million volumes; it was then damaged by the destruction of the Library of Alexandria as a result of the Crusader and Mongol invasion.

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