The Lebanese National Library (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: المكتبة الوطنية), located in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, is the

national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. It closed to the public in 1979 due to the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

, and its surviving collections were placed in storage. Restoration of its volumes and planning for a new site began in 1999.

History

The library was established in 1921, with a donation from Viscount Philippe de Tarrazi of twenty thousand books, many rare manuscripts, and the first issues of national newspapers.. De Tarazi's instructions were that his donation should form "the core of what should become the Great Library of Beyrouth." It was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education in 1922.. It moved to the Lebanese Parliament building in 1937. The Lebanese government decreed in 1924 that a copy of every book printed in Lebanon must be submitted, and also provided the library with a staff of eight clerks. A formal copyright deposit law was enacted in 1949 and amended in 1959, but it was never enforced. The government also failed to provide the library with a qualified librarian, or to clearly define its objectives. The library was repeatedly bombed and looted throughout the

. At one time, it had a collection of 100,000 volumes and 2,000 rare manuscripts; an unknown number of these were burned or stolen. In 1979, the building was closed and the surviving manuscripts and documents were stored in the National Archives, and modern printed books were stored in a separate building between 1982 and 1983. The Lebanese National Library only existed in name during the 1990s. An impassioned plea for a National Library of Lebanon was published in 1998 by the Lebanese Association of Antique Dealers, under the signature of Jean-Pierre Fattal. The following year, the European Commission decides to send a study mission to Beirut in order to assist the Lebanese government. This mission is immediately followed by an exhibition titled "collective memory" which was presented at the Sursock Museum in the Lebanese Capital. Its objective was to focus on the importance of the library rehabilitation project. The Lebanese government decides then to install the National Library in the Faculty of Law of the Lebanese University, in the district of Sayaneh, according to plans set by the architect Jean-Marc Bonfils (1963 -2020). Planning for a new site for the National Library began in 1999.. The goal was for the library to contain everything published in Lebanon (around 2,000 books annually) and all publications about Lebanon and the Arab world. The project, which also involved the restoration of the collection, was estimated at $7 million, of which $1.5 million was donated by the

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and the rest pledged by other governments and private donors. By 2006, more than 3,000 volumes had been restored.. The collection was again threatened during the

2006 Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i bombing near its storage facilities at the Port of Beirut.

References

External links

The Lebanese National Library (The Revival Project)The Lebanese National Library Foundation

History

See also

References

External links

Further reading