Islam Issa: Alexandria: The City that Changed the World. Sceptre Books, 2023

Islam Issa, the author of this expansive history of Alexandria, spent his childhood in his native city. His Alexandrian descent through the male line was unequalled. His father’s “ancestry test revealed a staggering 97.5 percent near to the word Alexandria”. Now a professor at Birmingham City University, Islam’s personal experiences of the city contrubute much to his narrative.

Alexandria, of course, has a long and distinguished history following its foundation by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. It was an unlikely spot for a city, on a bleak coast, with an offshore island, Pharos, which Alexander joined to the mainland by a causeway, so creating what would later be two harbours, east and west. The Alexander Romance, which probably originates in the beginning of the 3rd century BC, is encrusted with mythical tales of the foundation. Yet Alexander was soon on his way, scattering other cities with his name around the world as he conquered the Persian Empire. Yet none would equal the importance of the Egyptian Alexandria.

In an extraordinary coup, after Alexander’s death in 323, Ptolemy, one of his generals, seized his body when it was en route for a royal burial to Macedonia. This gave the city extra cachet and the Ptolemies established a dynasty which lasted until its conquest by Rome in the 1st century BC. Ptolemy II, the son of the body-snatcher, was particularly successful in creating a vibrant trading city. Alexandria was connected to the riches of the Nile Valley via a canal which brought fresh water, its two harbours gave safe anchorage whatever the weather and there was easy access to the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Sometime at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, its famous lighthouse, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, was built on the island. Probably over 100m high, it stood until the 12th century and was well represented in Arab sources.

Alexandria remained a trading city well into the 4th century but it was also an outstanding centre of Greek culture, particularly in science, astronomy and mathematics. The great Library, still in the age of scrolls, aimed to have every text known to the Greek world and was ready to resort to trickery to obtain them. The adjoining Mouseion, the “home of the Muses” (and the origin of the word Museum), attracted the best minds of the ancient world. Issa’s survey of the literary and other intellectual developments of the Hellenistic period (the 300 years after the death of Alexander) is one of the best parts of the book.

I found the chapter entitled “Cleopatras”, which includes the later complexities of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a little too detailed but it was more than made up for by a superb chapter on the “last” Cleopatra. She had an enormous appeal and fine mind, which captivated two of the most powerful men in the Roman world, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She, like Alexander, became the stuff of legend, continually reinterpreted as a symbol throughout history. The defeat of Cleopatra and Antony by Octavian, later the Emperor Augustus, at the battle of Actium in 31 BC saw the incorporation of Alexandria into the Roman Empire. Yet the city remained a centre of Greek learning for generations to come. Galen, the most influential physician of  the Roman period, learned his craft there. Perhaps the most famous scientist of the 2nd century AD was Claudius Ptolemy, whose works on astronomy and geography were culminations of outstanding accumulations of learning.

By the 4th century, Alexandria had a large Christian community. It had suffered grievously in Diocletian’s persecution but once toleration had been proclaimed by Constantine in 313, legends arose that the Evangelist Mark had founded the church there. His presence, like that of Alexander and Cleopatra, haunts the city. There are things that one could quibble about: Issa presents Mark’s arrival in the city as fact, even giving dates; he also credits Arius as a creator of subordinationism, though it was mainstream theology before Nicaea; there is little about the Council of Chalcedon (451), which allowed the Coptic church to separate itself from mainstream Christianity. And as might be expected, he concludes his chapters on Christianity with Hypatia, the philosopher murdered by a Christian mob in 415. She is another Alexandrian whose identity has been embellished over the centuries, both as the upholder of free thought and as a feminist icon.

The 7th century—to be precise the year 642—saw the conquest of Alexandria by the Islamic caliphate. Issa’s account gives a narrative of Arab rule that is not easily obtainable elsewhere. With the foundation of a new capital, Fustat (later to become Cairo), Alexandria went into decline. It was a very long decline. By the end of the 18th century, despite its grand buildings, Alexandria was little more than a fishing village.

Alexandria re-enters the European consciousness with the advent of Napoleon: the Rosetta Stone, found near Alexandria, was one discovery of its ancient Ptolemaic past and provided the key to the decipherment of hieroglyphics. Napoleon’s Description de l’Egypte was fundamental in awakening Western interest in Egypt. By the end of the 19th century, Egypt, and Alexandria, had come under British control (the Suez Canal cemented the relationship) and the city was beginning to take on the allure of a sophisticated and slightly decadent place, beloved of poets and novelists: E.M. Forster, Lawrence Durrell, C.P. Cafavy. From this, we move on to the anti-colonial Arab identity that took hold of the Alexandrian mind. The son of Issa’s great-grandfather’s postman was none other than Gamal Abdel Nasser, another Alexandrian. The story continues up to the Arab Spring and ends with the author’s reflections on the many changes that the city has known.

There is much of interest in Alexandria. It is comprehensive, well written and with impressive breadth. The subject is vast and it perhaps attempts too much: there are a few longueurs, especially when the author attempts to fill in chronological gaps in detail. However, it is a book that deserves notice: and notice duly came in 2024, when it won the prestigious Stephen Runciman award for “best book on Greece”. It is accessible, eminently readable and says much about the changing moods of Alexandria over its long history, a city from which so many prominent people have sprung.

by Charles Freeman, author of Egypt, Greece and Rome and the Blue Guide Sites of Antiquity