Part I: Catastrophic Destruction - When Sacred Memory Burns
Fire has always been both purifier and destroyer. When conquerors torch libraries, when reformers burn "corrupted" texts, when accidents consume centuries of accumulated wisdom, entire spiritual worlds can vanish in hours. Yet from these ashes often emerge the most remarkable stories of preservation—communities that risk everything to save their sacred words, scribes who hide scrolls in cave walls, and traditions that survive in the memories of those who refuse to let them die. This section explores the most dramatic moments of textual destruction across the world's great faiths, revealing how catastrophic loss shapes not just what survives, but how communities understand the sacred itself.