On Friday night, a historic library in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli was burned, destroying thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of books and manuscripts. Today, salvage efforts have begun: Although several news outlets were quoting an AFP report that “a pamphlet was discovered inside one of the books at the library that was insulting to Islam and the prophet Mohammad,” there was no apparent claim of responsibility and numerous denunciations. According to NaharNet, this wasn’t the first time the library was targeted. The day before, “Bashir Hazzouri, an employee at the library, was shot and wounded on Thursday in the old souks of Tripoli.” The library is run by the Greek Orthodox priest Father Ibrahim Srouj, and is apparently the largest in Tripoli and second-largest in Lebanon. According to library supporter Natheer Halawani, “The library has over 80,000 titles, not copies. The total amount of books exceeds this figure by far.” According to Blog Baladi, Al Sa’eh Library was founded in 1970 by the Orthodox Youth movement and consisted of a single room. Now, it has more than 80,000 books, of which 400 are rare. Numerous book-lovers expressed sorrow and dismay: Much like with Cairo’s Institut d’Egypte, now the difficult work of preserving books and manuscripts begins. More: Photos and commentary on A Separate State of Mind: Lebanon Loses 78000 Books To Terrorism: Tripoli’s “Al Sa’eh” Library Burned On Naharnet: Tripoli Figures Condemn Torching Famed Library as Father Sarrouj ‘Forgives Attackers’ LBC: Rifi to LBCI: Tripoli will rebuild al-Saeh Library Photos and commentary from Natheer Halawani’s Dusty Window blog: The Tourist That Shall Never Leave Blog Baladi: 20 Pictures Of Al Sa’eh Library in Tripoli Before It Got Torched Daily Star: History Library Torched in N. Lebanon Share this: Twitter26 Facebook52 Email Print StumbleUpon LinkedIn1 Digg Reddit Google Tumblr Pinterest Pocket Like this: January 4, 20143 Replies « Previous Next » Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Name * Email * Website Comment Notify me of follow-up comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Paolo on January 4, 2014 at 10:11 pm Is it possible to know what was the offending book allegedly promoted by the library? Reply mlynxqualey on January 5, 2014 at 12:20 am That said pamphlet, elsewhere it says article: http://stateofmind13.com/2014/01/04/lebanon-loses-78000-books-to-terrorism-tripolis-infamous-al-saeh-library-burned/ Reply Pingback: Back to the dark ages… | Brain Vomit HIGHLIGHTS: FORTHCOMING What's coming in 2014 A LOOK BACK AT 2013 Awards, events, translations, and those who left us in 2013. REMEMBERING AHMED FOUAD NEGM With new English translations. FAVORITES OF 2013 Award-winning authors share their favorite reads. BEST OF ARABLIT: 5 To Read Before You Die More than a dozen writers, editors, translators, and critics give their favorites. Arabic Booker Banipal Beirut39 Best of... book fairs censorship children's Egypt fiction graphic novels International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) Iraq Lebanese Libya literary events Morocco other literary prizes Palestine PalFest poetry publishing business review Saudi Syria theater translation Tunisia Uncategorized United Arab Emirates women Arabic Literature (in Italian)! E poi venne l’inverno, nella poesia di Golan Haji La giornata mondiale della lingua araba è oggi! Arab Arts Blog Migration, Language and Identity Space and Power: Dina Haddadin QISASUKHRA A kid came to me A poem by Ahmed Nada View Full Site Now Available! Download WordPress for Android Blog at WordPress.com.