-----Original Message-----
From: Andras Riedlmayer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 14 May 2003 01:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Iraqcrisis] Library's volumes safely hidden


The Boston Globe
May 13, 2003

Library's volumes safely hidden

 By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff,

BAGHDAD -- On a rundown street of auto repair shops in old
Saddam City, a Shi'ite mosque run by men in tattered clothing has
become a secret safe house for Iraqi treasures. Now that coalition
forces are arresting looters in the streets, the mosque's leaders
say their story can be told: Contrary to widespread belief, the
antique books of Iraq's National Library were not stolen by thieves
last month but were removed for safe keeping by self-appointed
guardians of Iraq's cultural heritage.

Inside a cavernous room at the Al Hak Mosque in the newly named
Revolution City, roughly 400,000 manuscripts, biographies, religious
works, and graduate-school theses are stacked to the 12-foot ceiling
and  gathering dust in the dry, 95-degree heat. In the Judaica-Hebrew
section  -- a small pile against the southern wall -- one history book
about Jews in Iraq dates to 1872, and a Talmudic text to 1880.

There are newspapers recording the revolutionary days of July 1958,
when the British-installed monarchy was overthrown and replaced by
the republic. One book of folklore was largely indecipherable to
the men at the mosque, but they said it was almost 500 years old.
''We had to protect the Islamic and Arabic heritage, so we acted
before Baghdad fell to chaos,'' said Mohammad al-Jawad al-Tamimi,
the mosque's imam. ''These books, it concerns the whole country.''

On April 15 the National Library was looted and set ablaze,
compounding the agony of many who cherish Iraq's role as an early,
important civilization, and those mourning the loss of precious
antiquities from the National Museum. At the time, the media reported
that the library was forsaken. International scholars, as well as
James H. Billington, librarian of the US Congress, have been preparing
to come to Baghdad to sift through the remains, create an inventory
of lost and found works, and help rebuild the library.

But Tamimi --who disclosed the mosque's holdings to a Boston Globe
reporter yesterday and allowed a Globe translator to inspect the
holdings -- smiled as he lifted a book with his parchment-colored
fingers and insisted that all was not lost. The books cannot be
authenticate until US and Iraqi officials inspect them; the mosque's
leaders plan to extend an invitation soon, once looting has entirely
subsided.

The library was believed to contain about 2 million works, including
some from the Abbasid Empire of 750 to 1250 AD that stretched from
Portugal to Pakistan. Copies of most of the books published in Iraq
were said to be in the library. What is certain is that many tens
of thousands of books are located here, in a variety of languages,
ranging from the myths of Mesopotamia and Iraqi war chronologies
to scientific papers by university students written decades ago.

Columns of sealed boxes of computer printers and photocopiers are
in another corner, belonging to the library's staff, Tamimi said.
He insisted that none of the books or equipment had once been stolen;
some Iraqi looters have been turning over goods to mosques in recent
weeks. ''We have about 30 percent of the library holdings, and
another 60 percent are hidden [at the library] and elsewhere,'' said
the sheik's brother, Mahmoud al-Tamimi. ''We brought them all here
to protect our past from thieves.''

What happened last month, the brothers and library workers said
yesterday, was essentially a preemptive rescue operation. Librarians
say that as American troops pressed into Baghdad April 9, they pleaded
with soldiers to protect the site from looters and Kuwaiti arsonists.
They said the Kuwaitis were bent on revenge for the 1990-91 invasion
and war. But the troops were involved with the business of the day,
toppling Saddam Hussein's regime.

The library staff then turned to mosques, Mahmoud Tamimi said, and came
to him. Tamimi and his family began working with Hawza -- Shi'ite leaders
who loosely coordinate city and regional religious affairs -- to recruit
volunteers to protect the library. On April 10, teams of men began moving
library shelves at random into trucks belonging to neighbors of Tamimi's
mosque 8 miles away. ''No one tried to stop us,'' Tamimi said. The work
continued for four days, until the arsonists appeared.

Other books and artifacts were hidden elsewhere on site, and library
workers believe that at least some of those items survived the fire
and looting. Grim-faced Hawza members are now posted around the clock
at the library, where the headless body of a statue of Hussein lies
in the front courtyard. (The head is rumored to be in an office inside.)

Yesterday, a reporter's press pass was not acceptable for passage by
three men at the gate, which had been wrapped in wires and padlocked.
''Come back at 2 o'clock Wednesday when the man with the key arrives,''
said one guard. Another, Hamid Kharban, said he was proud to watch over
the library because ''Iraqis have a very close relationship with books.''
''I know the value of books, that's why I'm protecting them,'' Kharban
said. ''They are beyond value. Priceless.''


Patrick Healy can be reached at <[log in to unmask]>. This story ran
on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 5/13/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.




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