Google is celebrating the life and work of Mostafa El-Abbadi in today's Google Doodle.
El-Abbadi, who would have been celebrating his 94th birthday today, was a significant Egyptian historian who contributed to the modern day recreation of the ancient Library of Alexandria.
The Google Doodle is featuring on homepages across the globe, including the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Greece, Austria, Germany, Sweden and Iceland.
It includes an illustration of the professor reading a book, alongside drawings of the Library of Alexandria.
Here's who Mostafa El-Abbadi was, why he was such an important historian, and what the Library of Alexandria was.
Who was Mostafa El-Abbadi?
Mostafa El-Abbadi was a prominent Egyptian historian who specialised in Greco-Roman studies and was credited with being the visionary behind the revival of the ancient Library of Alexandria.
El-Abbadi was born in Cairo, Egypt on October 10, 1928. He developed an interest in academia from a young age thanks to his father, who was the founder of the College of Letters and Arts a the University of Alexandria.
He went on to graduate from the University of Alexandria himself and was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge.
After completing his studies, El-Abbadi moved back to Egypt and returned to the University of Alexandria to take on the role of a lecturer and later became a professor of Greco-Roman studies.
El-Abbadi had a keen interest in the Library of Alexandria and during his career he became a leading voice on the topic, often giving lectures about it around the world as well as writing the critically acclaimed book Life and Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria.
While working as a lecturer he would often promote the modern recreation of the library and he eventually convinced UNESCO and the Egyptian government to support his project.
Nearly 15 years later the Bibliotheca Alexandrina opened in 2002, it contains over eight million books, seven floors, four museums, and a planetarium.
In 1996 El-Abbadi was elected as president of the Archaeological Society of Alexandria and during his lifetime he went on to receive many academic and government honours for his work.
In 2017 he passed away at the age of 88 after suffering from heart failure.
What was the Library of Alexandria?
The Great Library of Alexandria was the first international library in the world. It was the most important repository of accumulated knowledge in the ancient world and was also a research institution dedicated to the nine muses.
The library was built near the royal palace in Alexandria at some point between 246 BC and 222 BC and is estimated to have housed between 200,000 and 700,000 books and documents from Assyria, Persia, Greece, Egypt, India and more.
However, the library later ceased to exist and its destruction remains a mystery debated among academics.
In his book, Life and Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, El-Abbadi blamed Julius Caesar for the ancient library's destruction.
In 48 BC, Caesar was pursuing Pompey in Egypt when he was cut off by a large fleet of Egyptian boats in the harbour of Alexandria. He ordered for the boats to be set on fire but the flames spread to the city and the library was set alight.
However, other academics believe that while the library was set on fire in 48 BC, this didn't cause complete destruction and that the library actually declined gradually.
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