”At 5.02am on 31 March – a Tuesday – a US-Israeli airstrike hit the mosque. Four people were killed, and 26 wounded. And the Seyyed al-Shohada Library inside the mosque complex was completely obliterated.
The library held a sprawling collection of 21,000 books, including an archive of 6,000 rare manuscripts; historical documents; and theses. These were dedicated to Shia history and the life of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who is revered as a symbol of resistance against oppression.
Most of these centuries-old texts had never been digitised. They existed nowhere else in the world. Irreplaceable history turned to ash.”
”According to the library’s records, at least 1,900 men and 2,200 women used the library every month. It was a place where parents brought young children on weekends, and where the city’s youth had affordable access to learning outside an overstretched school system. An annual membership and library card cost about $1.50.”
From the first issue of The Atlas.
https://www.theatlasnewspaper.org
