1988/01/01 by Diana Delia · 5 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Arts and Humanities · #Islamic Finance and Banking Studies #Archaeology and Historical Studies
paper · doi:10.2307/284172
openalex publication_date 1988/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/04
The eminent Arab historian, 'Abd ar-Rahman Abu Zayd ibn Khald'un, once observed that a highly positive correlation exists between the size of a city's population and the degree of civilization and prosperity which it enjoys.' Accordingly, one would expect the ancient testimonia on Alexandria ad Aegyptum, a city often eulogized as a crossroads of the civilized world, in greatness second only to Rome, to reveal that its population was considerable in size. Regrettably, the sources are both few and controversial. Nevertheless, on the basis of these some scholars have postulated population estimates for Alexandria.2 To be sure, such endeavors are a credit to the dedicated perseverance of ancient historians; yet population estimates are only as valid as the sources on which they are based and the methodology by which they are derived. This study proposes to reassess the ancient evidence for Alexandria as well as modem