VOLUNTEERS RACE TO SAVE THE BOOKS OF GAZA ' S GREAT OMARI MOSQUE LIBRARY
TIMEKEEPERS
Pages from the Rubble
VOLUNTEERS RACE TO SAVE THE BOOKS OF GAZA ' S GREAT OMARI MOSQUE LIBRARY
I nside the dusty shell of one of the oldest libraries in the Palestinian territories, a small group of volunteers moves carefully through the rubble. They wear masks and gloves. Some crouch on the floor, lifting fragments of charred manuscript from the debris. Others use paintbrushes to dust off the covers of ancient tomes, the way an archaeologist might treat a burial site. In a sense, that is exactly what this is.
The library of the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City— the third largest library in Palestine after those of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar Mosque in Acre— has been devastated by the war that erupted in October 2023. The western section of the library was burned when the mosque was struck. What once housed an estimated 20,000 volumes now holds, according to volunteers on the ground, no more than 3,000 to 4,000 survivors.
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The condition of the rare and historical books is deplorable due to their being left for more than 700 to 800 days – immense damage and gunpowder residue on the volumes.
62 MATAHEF ISSUE 03