Rebuilding Mosul's libraries book by book | 12 april 2017

Iraq | Archives | Manuscripts

by Neveen Youssef

Many of Mosul University's buildings were destroyed by IS

When Islamic State (IS) militants occupied Mosul University in June 2014, they set about destroying its precious collection of manuscripts in a show of contempt for culture and higher education.

Now though, in an attempt to rebuild Mosul's cultural heritage, a campaign is under way to restore the university library and others in the city.

The project is being led by an anonymous blogger, who found fame writing about life under IS on the site Mosul Eye for the past three years.

The blogger, who describes himself as an independent historian, is calling for donations of books and other printed material in all languages and from all disciplines under the slogan: "Let it be a book, rising from the ashes." Read more...

ISIS burns Mosul library: Why terrorists target books - CSMonitor.com

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  By Husna Haq, Correspondent February 25, 2015

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

From the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in 391 AD, to
the burning of Kabul libraries in 2002, to the the obliteration of the
Library of Baghdad in 2003, oppressive regimes have historically
targeted libraries.



In the latest example, on Sunday, in northern Iraq, Islamic State militants burned the Mosul public library, which housed more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts.



According
to reports, ISIS militants rigged the entire building with explosives
and carried out multiple detonations to raze the historical landmark and
its contents. Among its lost collections, according to the Fiscal Times,
were manuscripts from the 18th century, Syriac books printed in Iraq's
first printing house in the 19th century, books from the Ottoman era,
Iraqi newspapers from the early 20th century, and treasured antiques
like an astrolabe and sand glass used by ancient Arabs. Read more...

Related articles

• ISIS Nazis Burn THOUSANDS of Ancient and Priceless Books (shoebat.com)
• Islamic State Nazis Bomb Mosul Library, Burn 8,000 Rare Books (conservativebyte.com)
• 500 Year Old Map Was Discovered That Shatters The "Official" History Of The Planet (collective-evolution.com)
• Iraqi libraries ransacked by Islamic State group in Mosul (yakimaherald.com)
• Iraqi libraries ransacked by Islamic State group in Mosul (cnsnews.com)
• Iraqi Libraries Ransacked by Islamic State Group in Mosul (abcnews.go.com)
• Islamic State Continues Destruction of Antiquities in Iraq (therebel.website)
• Turkish operation rescues soldiers guarding tomb in Syria (scpr.org)

ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul - Yahoo Finance

ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul

While
the world was watching the Academy Awards ceremony, the people of Mosul
were watching a different show. They were horrified to see ISIS members
burn the Mosul public library. Among the many thousands of books it
housed, more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts were burned.

“ISIS militants bombed the Mosul Public Library.
They used improvised explosive devices,” said Ghanim al-Ta'an, the
director of the library. Notables in Mosul tried to persuade ISIS
members to spare the library, but they failed. Read more...

Related articles

• Over 100,000 manuscripts, books burnt by ISIL across Iraq's Anbar (panorama.am)
• ISIS Terrorists Destroy Holy Shrines , Virgin Mary's Church and Central Library of Mosul, Iraq (jafrianews.com)

This photo taken Sept. 30, 2013 shows Dina Herbert, a librarian holding the Kol Bo book from the 1540's, that was one of the Iraqi Jewish documents being conserved at the National Archives in College Park, Md. The tattered Torah scroll fragments, Bibles and other religious texts found in a flooded Baghdad basement 10 years ago testify to a once-thriving Jewish population that's all but disappeared from Iraq. Recovered from the Iraqi intelligence headquarters and shipped to the United States for years of painstaking conservation was a literary trove of more than 2,700 books and tens of thousands of documents that are being digitized and put online. A sample of that treasure is being displayed for the first time this fall at the National Archives in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The tattered Torah scroll fragments, Bibles and other religious texts found in a flooded Baghdad basement 10 years ago testify to a once-thriving Jewish population that's all but disappeared from Iraq. Read more...

Return Of ‘Stolen’ Jewish Trove From Iraq Fueling Anger | The Jewish Week

On eve of D.C. exhibit, community wants ‘illegally expropriated’ material to remain in Jewish hands in U.S.

10/16/13

 

Stewart Ain

Staff Writer 

Jewish trove found in an Iraqi government building. Photos courtesy of Harold Rhode

The treasure trove of materials tells the story of the rich history of Iraqi Jews, stretching back 2,500 years to Babylonia. There are Torah parchments, a Hebrew Bible with commentaries from 1568, a Babylonian Talmud from 1793 and a Passover Haggadah from 1902.

The material, believed to have been seized by former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, was found in the flooded basement of Iraq’s intelligence agency in Baghdad two months after the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Eventually rescued by U.S. troops, it was preserved and restored at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, with help from philanthropists and foundations as well as $2.9 million in federal funds.

Now, as the trove is about to go on view at the National Archives, the prospect that the material will be returned to Iraq after the show — under an agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments — has sparked anger in the Jewish community.
Harold Rhode, who discovered the trove while working as a Defense Department policy analyst assigned to Iraq’s transitional government, said he is “horrified” to think the material would be returned when it had been “stolen by the government of Iraq from the Jewish community.”

“It would be comparable to the U.S. returning to the German government Jewish property that had been looted by the Nazis,” he told The Jewish Week.
Read article...

Related articles

• Point of no return: Iraqi Jews speak up against archive return
• Saving Iraq's Jewish Scolls
• Is Iraq Entitled to the 'Jewish Archive?'
• Point of no return: Returning archive is just plain wrong

Iraqi librarian saved 30,000 books during 2003 invasion - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Last Update: Sunday, 17 March 2013 KSA 21:05 - GMT 18:05

Iraqi librarian saved 30,000 books during 2003 invasion

Sunday, 17 March 2013

A Basra librarian remembers how she moved 30,000 books out of the city’s central library to a neighboring restaurant and later to her home, before the looting and burning of the library in the first days of the U.S.-invasion of Iraq exactly a decade ago. (Reuters)

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Reuters, Basra-Iraq -

Ten years ago this week, British forces entered Iraq’s second city, Basra, as part of the U.S.-led invasion of the country.

No one remembers that decisive event more so than librarian Alia Baqer. Read more...