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From: "J.WALKER" <[log in to unmask]>
Date sent: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 09:09:50 +0100
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National Library, Natl Archives, Awqaf library in Baghdad torched
After the terrible reports of the sacking of the Iraq Museum by
looters over two and a half days (Thursday through Saturday),
comes even more bad news -- Iraq's national library (al-Maktabah al-
Wataniyah) and national archives and the nearby manuscript library
of
the Ministry of Awqaf were looted and then burned to the ground on
Sunday. U.S. troops guarding the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, located in
close proximity to the library, reportedly refused to intervene. Below
are some excerpts (with links) from three news reports filed from the
scene.
The extent of the cultural losses elsewhere in
Iraq, which reportedly also include the University of Mosul's rare
books and manuscripts collection, the museum and library of the
University of Basra, and many archives, have yet to be fully
understood. Andras Riedlmayer Harvard University
==========================================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2948021.stm
[EXCERPT]: Almost all of the contents of Iraq's
national library and archives are reported to have been destroyed by
fire, meaning the loss of priceless records of the country's history.
The library, in central Baghdad, housed several rare volumes,
including entire royal court records and files from the
period when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire.
It is unclear who started the fires -- though widespread looting has
taken place in the Iraqi capital, with the city's museum also
ransacked and many rare artefacts damaged, destroyed or stolen.
The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has pledged to recover
and repair the antiquities looted from the city museum, amid
criticism from heritage bodies that the damage should have been
prevented.
A Western journalist - Robert Fisk of the
Independent -- reporting from the site of the library -- told the BBC
that the whole building had been gutted, with handwritten documents
from as far back as the 16th century -- when Iraq was part of the
Ottoman Empire -- strewn on the ground.
A nearby Islamic library has also gone in up in flames, he said,
destroying valuable literature including one of the oldest surviving
copies of the Koran. [...]
--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.independent.co.uk/ The Independent (London) Tues. Apr. 15,
2003 By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
[EXCERPT] So yesterday was the burning of books.
First came the looters, then came the arsonists. It was the final
chapter in the sack of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives -
a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents including the
old Royal archives of Iraq - were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of
heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious
Endowment were set ablaze. I saw the looters. One of them cursed me
when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy who could
have been no more than 10 years old. Amid the ashes of hundreds of
years of Iraqi history, I found just one file blowing in the wind
outside: pages and pages of handwritten letters between the court of
Sherif Hussein of Mecca ñ who started the Arab revolt against the
Turks for Lawrence of Arabia ñ and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad.
And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew,
letters of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for
ammunition for Ottoman troops, reports on the theft of camels and
attacks on pilgrims, all of them in delicate hand-written Arabic
script. I was holding in my hands the last Baghdad vestiges of Iraq's
written history. But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the
destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archeology on Saturday
and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library
of the ministry 500 metres away, the cultural identity of Iraq is
being erased. Why? [...]
____________________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/14/international/worldspecial/14B
AGH.html New York Times (April 14, 2003) Report by John Burns
[EXCERPT]: But even as some Iraqis sought to heal the city's
wounds, others, fired by anger and revenge, broke through
to the little that was left of untouched government buildings after
four days of continuous looting. Among other buildings afire or still
smoldering in eastern Baghdad today were the city hall, the
Agriculture Ministry and -- so thoroughly burned that heat still
radiated 50 paces from its front doors -- the National Library. Not
far from the National Museum of Iraq, which was looted on Thursday and
Friday with the loss of almost all of its store of 170,000 artifacts,
the library was considered another of the repositories of an Iraqi
civilization dating back at least 7,000 years.
By tonight, virtually nothing was left of the library and its tens of
thousands of old manuscripts and books, and of archives like Iraqi
newspapers tracing the country's turbulent history from the era of
Ottoman rule through to Mr. Hussein. Reading rooms and the stacks
where the collections were stored were reduced to smoking vistas of
blackened rubble. Across the street, a lone American tank roared out
of the monumental gates of the Defense Ministry, untouched by the
looters presumably because they knew that the ministry, at least,
would be under close guard by American troops. [...] ------- End of
forwarded message -------
======================================================== John Walker
JRULM Promotions & Marketing Assistant and Archive Assistant, Labour
History Archive & Study Centre John Rylands University Library of
Manchester University of Manchester Oxford Road, MANCHESTER. M13 9PP
Tel: 0161 275 8724 (am); 0161 228 7212 (pm) Fax: 0161 273 7488 Email:
[log in to unmask]
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John Walker
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John Walker
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