Assault on the written word
In 2003, when the Americans attacked Iraq and occupied Baghdad, its library and rare archive were badly affected. Robert Fisk, the British Journalist, pointed out in one of his reports that the papers and documents belonging to Ottoman’s period were scattered on the floor
Other libraries which were burnt either by the rebels, fanatics or conquerors, one of them was founded by the Fatimid Caliph, Alhakim (r.996-1021). He collected rare manuscripts from all over the Muslim world and made it a center of learning for scholars. In 1068 when the Fatimid Cliphate was on decline and the government failed to pay the salaries of their servants, the dissatisfied and angry mob looted and plundered the government properties including the library. A Berber Tribe, after looting the books, burnt them as heretic literature and reduced them to ashes. Even today the place of burning books is known as Talal ul Kutab or the mound of books.
In the 11th century when the crusaders invaded Middle East to recover the holy city of Jerusalem, they not only massacred inhabitants of captured cities but also burned the library of Tripoli in Lebanon.
In the 13th century, the Mongols brought destruction to the cities of Central Asia and Middle East. Halagu Khan (r.1218-1265) first completely wiped out the city of Bukhara and its libraries. Then he attacked the Ismaeli Fort Almot, which had an excellent library which was maintained by the Ismaeli Imam. Historian Ata-Malik Juvayni (d.1283) who accompanied Halagu described in his book, Tarikh e Jahan Kusha about the destruction of the army. He picked up some books for his personal use after getting the permission from the Khan. Next he invaded Baghdad in 1258 and after assassinating the Caliph set on fire the Baitul Hikmat which possessed thousands of manuscripts. The books were thrown in the River Tigris, whose water became black with the ink of the manuscripts. Loss of the libraries of Bukhara, Almot and Baghdad was irreversible and the Muslim society deprived of centuries old intellectual heritage of its past generations.
When in 1492 Al Andlus was finally conquered by the Christian and after expelling the Jews and the Muslims from the Spain, efforts were made to Christianise whole Spain leaving no trace of the Muslim presence. The Church authorities collected all Arabic books and set them on fire at the square of the cities. The Muslim Andlus, which enlightened Europe during its rule, after loosing the intellectual heritage reverted to darkness.
In 1857 during the war of independence when the British occupied Dehli, its soldiers systematically looted and plundered it. The private libraries of the nobility and scholars and the royal Mughal library were targeted by the soldiers. The rare manuscripts of the libraries were taken away. The illustrated pages were retained and the rest of manuscripts were destroyed and thrown away. Mirza Ghalib (d.1869) in one of his letters laments the destruction of the private library of Nawab Zia ud Din.
The tradition to burn the libraries continued and in modern period number of such events occurred, which show that the hostility against libraries is alive and attempts are made to damage the intellectual and literary heritage of the rivals, opponents and enemies.
In 1981, the Sinhalese burnt the Tamil library at Jafna, which was famous for its 97,000 books and manuscripts.
In 1982, when Israeli army invaded Beirut, it destroyed the Palestinian Research Institute which contained number of documents and papers relating to Palestinian resistance against Israel in order to wipe out all evidence against its aggression and injustices to the Palestinian people. PLO could not revive the same Institute again, which played an important role for its struggle.
In the decade of 1990, the Serbs systematically burnt the public and private libraries of Croatia in order to deprive them of their rich heritage.
In 2003, when the Americans attacked Iraq and occupied Baghdad, its library and rare archive were badly affected. Robert Fisk, the British Journalist, pointed out in one of his reports that the papers and documents belonging to Ottoman’s period were scattered on the floor and no care was taken to preserve them. In 2004, the Hindu fanatics belong to Shev Sina damaged the library of Bhandarkar at Pune, which was famous for its rare Sanskrit manuscripts. The cause for their anger was that an American historian, James Laing, made some hostile remarks against Shiva Ji, in his books referring from the manuscripts of the library. The religious extremists following the tradition to burn the libraries in order to assert righteousness of the faith and in 2013, the Islamic extremists burnt the library of Timbuktu and similar incidents were occurred in Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.
Sadly, libraries are not safe in most of the Muslim countries where sectarian and religious differences excited the emotions of people to destroy and burn libraries. Consequently, the Muslim society is missing the opportunity to be equipped with modern knowledge and compete with other nations.
