The City That Changed the World
by Islam Issa
A Review by Dwight A. Moody
I once read the history of Jerusalem by George Adam Smith, but I recall no other time I picked up a book about one city and read it straight through; and I don’t know what possessed me to buy this one in a small neighborhood bookstore in Charlotte. I took my grandson there so he could spend his $100 gift certificate; but it was our next trip there that motivated him to buy three books and a USA road map. I was the only one who walked out that first time with three books, including this one. But I am glad I did.
Alexandria sits on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, tracing its history to Alexander the Great. He and, later, his engineers laid out wide streets and spacious plazas, and dreamed of architecture to capture the attention of the world. And that is exactly what happened, as it became home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (the Pharos Lighthouse) and, later, the greatest library the world has ever known.
It was cosmopolitan from the beginning, meaning it was home to people from all over the known world. It was millennia before it took on the African and Egyptian character of today’s version. It was Greek, and Ptolemaic, and Roman, and Christian, and Islamic and, for a short time, French, then English, before becoming its own place, unbeholden to any outside culture or king.
Of interest to me as a Christian historian was the chapter on “St. Mark the Evangelist”. First, Issa speculates like this: did Jesus ever make it to Alexandria? For most of its illustrious history, the city has been a hospitable place for Jews, and today the thinly attended Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue sits on the same street as the Cathedral of St. Mark and the Mosque of the Prophet Daniel. More than once, Jews have fled here for safety and prosperity. So, Alexandria may have been the destination of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus when they fled the wrath of Herod, according to the gospels. And Jesus may have come back, Issa postulates with good reason. There is much better reason to assert that Mark the Evangelist came to the great city, in or about 41 CE, according to the Greek historian Eusebius. For this and other reasons, Alexandria has had, for most of its history, a strong Christian presence.
What struck me most about this history is the repetition of murder: not so much street or organized crime, but rival claimants to royal power leading to lynchings, hangings, stabbings, poisonings, shootings, and drownings. By any way you can imagine, men and women, young and old, sliced and diced their way to the seat of power. Issa even draws attention to the many cemeteries still visible in the city, reminding me of my one and only visit to Cairo many years ago when I visited their large cemetery known as the city of the dead (so called because of the many poor people who live in the cemetery!).
Right at the center of these centuries of killing were the various Islamic/Arabic kingdoms: Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks, and finally Ottomans. They were as cutthroat as any Christian king or secular ruler, tearing at each other century after century. This is a part of world history that rarely garners much attention in our Christianized West.
Through it all, Issa documents, Alexandria remained a prime economic and cultural hub, attracting merchants with their fleets hauling spices and wheat, mainly. Before, during, and after, the city has also been a place of architectural wonder, larger and more spectacular than other cities of the civilized world. It fed the imagination of generals, artists, merchants, investors, and missionaries of all kinds.
And all of this was new to me as I read through this 432-page (plus notes) book published just last year in New York City, fitting I suppose for a place that the author describes as the “first modern city” (and he traces that modernity way back, to Alexander’s first visit to the spot, in 331 BC). Now, six million people call it home, and interested people around the world call it fascinating, and influential, and worthy of our attention. It drew my attention, and that of Islam Issa, and also that of Luke the Evangelist who, four times, writes the word Alexandria into the text of Acts of the Apostles (6:9, 18:24, 27:6, 28;11).
I am glad I bought it and read it and reviewed it. I have already promised it to two different people, but I can’t remember who!
