Preliminary Report on the Condition of the National Library of Iraq

Amman, Jordan 30-06-2003

A team of historians including Hala Fattah, Edouard Metenier, Jens Hanssen and Keith Watenpaugh has just returned from 8 days in Baghdad.

We will be distributing a longer report by July 10, addressing issues of academic and intellectual life in Baghdad and the challenges and obstacles facing the Iraqi academic community as it rebuilds.

However, we thought it important to provide a summary of information about the National Library as soon as possible.

Below are some preliminary observations.

1. The library building has been rendered unusable by two successive fires and CPA authorities are hoping to move the library to a temporary location in a garish modern massive officer's club at al-Balat al-Malki.
   This move is envisioned in the next weeks, however, Amb. Cordonne, whose portfolio includes the library, is pessimistic.
2. It is estimated by library employees that between 30%-60% of the collection is safe and held in three separate locations:
   1. Behind a large steel door that has been welded shut by members of the Haq Mosque's Hawza Group. The welded doors essentially seal off a wing of the library's ground floor.
   2. The Haq Mosque's Hawza Group was able to take what they claim to be 300,000 volumes to their mosque in Revolution City (nee Saddam City.)
      A visual inspection conducted by Hanssen and Watenpaugh confirmed that they have this collection well in hand and that it occupies aprx. 150-200 cubic meters. Earlier reports of books in Hebrew are true; what was also found were 50+ 50 liter sacks of archival materials from the Mandate period through the Revolution of 1958.
   3. The library staff also evacuated parts of the rare/forbidden books collection to a "secret safe location." They informed the CPA of the location of this stash two days ago.
3. We were unable to locate any Ottoman archival material whatsoever.
4. While we were able to find books stolen from several Iraqi libraries for sale openly in the Suq, it is unlikely that the collection faces any immediate danger of continued loss and or theft.
5. We were able to convey our findings to M. Arnoult of UNESCO's current delegation in Baghdad.

Again, these are only preliminary findings and additional information on this and many other topics is forthcoming.