As well as the National Library, Robert Fisk's report in The Independent
also mentioned the burning of the library of Qur'ans at the Ministry of
Religious Endowments, i.e. Maktabat al-Awqaf al-Markaziyah. This
contained not only Qur'ans, but also at least 7354 other Arabic texts.
This information comes from the 4-volume catalogue of the Arabic
manuscripts:-
JUBURI, `Abd Allah al-: Fihris al-makhtutat al-`Arabiyah fi Maktabat
al-Awqaf al-`Ammah fi Baghdad. Baghdad: Ri'asat Diwan al-Awqaf, 1393-94
/ 1973-74.
The same author had previously published an interesting illustrated
history of the collections:-
JUBURI, `Abd Allah al-: Maktabat al-Awqaf al-`Ammah: tarikhuha,
wa-nawadir makhtutatiha. Baghdad: Ri'asat Diwan al-Awqaf, 1389/1969.
The describes how the holdings came from numerous private and mosque
libraries all over Iraq, and gives special descriptions of some of the
rarer and more interesting items. These included not only MSS, but also
rare 19th-century printed books. It starts with a selection of poems
written in celebration of the opening of the Library in 1928 -- how
those poets must now be turning in their graves.
The Library also contained at least 130 Persian and 110 Turkish
manuscripts.
All the above figures must of course be augmented by subsequent
accessions.
Although Fisk mentioned only the burning of Qur'ans from this library,
it must be highly likely that
other MSS and printed books were looted. The information contained in
the above volumes should be added, if possible, to the proposed
(presumably already enormous) databases of stolen Iraqi cultural
property.
Geoffrey Roper
Islamic Bibliography Unit
Cambridge University Library
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