Mosul library

The Mosul Library is a public library located in the city of Mosul, north of "Iraq. In particular, it houses rare and ancient works, including testimonies of the invention of writing – this region being considered as the Cradle of Civilization; or even for some the Cradle of humanity (as indicated in the writings compiled for the elaboration of the Bible, then from the Quran).

Many have been destroyed since CE 2015 by the action of the members of the Islamic State terrorist organization.

Collection
Its collection includes centuries-old works such as manuscripts from the c. 18th century, works Syrians from the c. 19th century, and ancient objects, some dating back to 5000 BCE.

Since the intentional destruction of thousands of structures in 2015, the inventory of the remaining structures is no longer guaranteed and needs to be updated.

History
The library was created in 1921.

On February 22, 2015, while the city of Mosul has been controlled for several weeks by the terrorist organization Daesh, improvised explosive devices placed in the library destroy by fire about 8,000 old books. These destructions of works are part of a more general regional context with the destruction of churches, the burning of the library and theatre of the university in January and on February 26, a few days after the fire of the library, the destruction of works of the Mosul Museum.

Alerts on these Auto-da-fés were issued as early as January 2015; in early February, through its Director-General Irina Bokova, the UNESCO states that "if confirmed, it would be one of the largest intentional destructions of works in human history". An amputation confirmed since this alert.

In the end, only 15000 books out of a million documents could be saved from the destruction of the Islamic State.

The library is being rebuilt with the help of the UNDP and reopens in 2022. Many donations of books are made from all over the world to stock its shelves.