Re: WG: Bagdad Nationalbibliothek ((Fwd) [Librarymedievalists] More terrible news out of Iraq)

["Heinrich C. Kuhn" <hck _at__ lrz.uni-muenchen.de>]

Untenstehend via "librarymedievalists" zum Thema erhaltenes.

Und ich fuerchte: gleich ob durch Abschreiben, Mikroverfilmen,
Digitalisieren wird sich der Verlust durch solche Katastrophen
nicht wesentlich verringern lassen: Der Zeitbedarf fuer derlei
Kopieren *aller* Bestaende einer groesseren Bibliothek ist
doch recht hoch ... .

   Mit betruebten Gruessen

Heinrich C. Kuhn
------- Forwarded message follows -------
To:             	librarymedievalists _at__ yahoogroups.com
From:           	"David J. Duncan" <dante0220 _at__ yahoo.com>
Date sent:      	Tue, 15 Apr 2003 11:04:02 -0700 (PDT)
Subject:        	[Librarymedievalists] More terrible news out of Iraq
Send reply to:  	Librarymedievalists _at__ yahoogroups.com

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Hi Everyone:

This info just came over the H-Turk list.  This
really stinks.  <sigh....>

Thanks

David

************************
 Sent by: TSA/H-Net List for Turkish and Ottoman
History and Culture <H-TURK _at__ H-NET.MSU.EDU>
 04/14/03 06:14 PM
 Please respond to TSA/H-Net List for Turkish and
Ottoman History and Culture

   To: H-TURK _at__ H-NET.MSU.EDU
   cc:
   Subject: H-TURK: 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/14BAGH.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.
[...]



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+---------------------------------------------------------
|    Dr. Heinrich C. Kuhn
|    Seminar fuer Geistesgeschichte der Renaissance
|    Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen
|    D-80539 Muenchen / Ludwigstr. 31/IV
|    T.: +49-89-2180 2018, F.: +49-89-2180 2907
|    inst. URL: http://www.phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de/
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