The Conqueror’s Library
The story of King Ashurbanipal’s library, the largest in the world before Alexandria
In 1849, English explorer Austen Henry Layard discovered a series of clay tablets in the ruins of Nineveh. Once upon a time, Nineveh was a flourishing city and the capital of the mighty Assyrian empire. His junior archaeologist, Hormuzd Rassam, found more tablets in the same region three years later. A series of excavations revealed one of the ancient world’s largest libraries.
The Library of King Ashurbanipal.
Ashurbanipal’s temple of knowledge may have inspired the famous Library of Alexandria, one of the ancient world’s centers of knowledge and the birthplace of several discoveries.
Ashurbanipal was a fearsome conqueror. Under his reign from 669 B.C. to 631 B.C., the Assyrian Empire (also known as the Neo-Assyrian Empire) peaked. At the same time, he was a learned man. His appetite for knowledge exceeded his desire to conquer new lands.
Why did a terrifying conqueror have an insatiable curiosity for knowledge? Before we discuss Ashurbanipal’s library, let’s explore what motivated ancient people to start a library.
