Alexandria

The City That Changed the World

By: Islam Issa

Narrated by: Islam Issa

Islam Issa's father had always told him about their city's magnificence, and as he looked at the new library in Alexandria it finally hit home. This is no ordinary library. And Alexandria is no ordinary city.

Combining rigorous research with myth and folklore, Alexandria is an authoritative history of a city that has shaped our modern world. Soon after being founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria became the crucible of cultural exchange between East and West for millennia and the undisputed global capital of knowledge. It was at the forefront of human progress, but it also witnessed brutal natural disasters, plagues, crusades, and violence.

Major empires fought over Alexandria, from the Greeks and Romans to the Arabs, Ottomans, French, and British. Key figures shaped the city from its eponymous founder to Aristotle, Cleopatra, Saint Mark the Evangelist, Napoleon Bonaparte, and many others, each putting their own stamp on its identity and its fortunes. And millions of people have lived in this bustling seaport on the Mediterranean. From its humble origins to its dizzy heights and its latest incarnation, Islam Issa tells us the rich and gripping story of a city that changed the world.

©2024 Islam Issa (P)2024 Tantor

This is the book that was waiting to be written!

Finally, a well-researched, poetically written book about the pivotal city that has unquestionably changed the world! Comprehensive in historical detail extending beyond battles and politics to culture, values and more.

More than a city history

This book tells the history of ancient world through this most important hub of civilization. It is read by the author in a most pleasant and personal manner. I enjoyed it greatly and plan to replay the audiobook in the future.

A tragedy told by a prejudice fool.

The confusingly written book Alexandria: The City That Changed the World by British Historian Islam Issa, is riddled with historic inaccuracies, bias leanings, personal stories, and ocasional critical analysis that tended to be skewed in the direction of how he wanted to portray Alexandria’s history. The most tragic and ironic part for me is that he indicated that much of Alexandria’s greatness (or at least uniqueness) lay in its diversity and cosmopolitanism, which created a robust climate for trade and free thinking. However Issa seemed hardly bothered by the end of much of the diversity in the mid 20th century, especially the ethnic cleansing of Alexandria’s Jews by Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, he victim-blamed the Jews for their ethnic cleansing from the city whose role they played in since its founding over 2000 years earlier. He seemed to briefly wrestle with this massive contradiction in the epilogue, but went for the easy exit of waxing poetically about how cities change with time. He was also dismissive about the loss of other minority groups in the city including Greeks and Italians, who had generations who had lived there before being forced out. I was very excited for this book, and I still hope to find an objective history of the fascinating city, but this book is not that.