Culture
Books are more powerful than terrorism… ISIS is gone and Al Tapqqa library is back
Aso-Jihan Mohammed
Translated by: Hejar Abbo
The Committee on Culture and Art in Al Tapqqa in North East Syria has restored a library at the city’s cultural center, years after it was burned and looted by ISIS.
ISIS had looted, robbed and burned the library, just before it is defeated in Al Tapqqa, while the center’s curators were able to smuggle some books confidentially.
Prior the presence of ISIS in Al-Tappqa, the library contained about 27,000 books ranging from books of philosophy, psychology, languages, culture, literature, songs and politics, as well as a section dedicated to children’s stories with some 3,000 stories and books.
Today, after years of terrorism, Al Tapqqa book store sees the light of day again, and welcomes the people of the city and its countryside with the return of the titles of the books to the library shelves.
The archival, sorting and numbering process has been done to the library, according to Media Medewr, the library’s archivist.
Media says the restoration of the library in its current form follows support from the Union of Intellectuals in North East Syria and some donors who contributed to the renovation of the library.
Ali Alaya, co-chairman of the Committee of Culture and Art in Al Tapqqa, said that the creation of a book library at the Cultural Center in Al-Tapqqa came after the restoration of a section of the Cultural Center in Al-Tapqqa city in 2018.
He added that a special committee took an interest in inspecting the books that were taken out of fear of ISIS, “some of the books had been subjected to moisture and weariness”.
According to officials of the culture committee, 1,250 books, 60 videos and cassettes were smuggled.
The cultural center of Al Tapqqa is among the largest cultural centers in Syria.
ISIS has transformed the cultural center to a prison and place of torturing residents.
It is noteworthy that the number of books in the library now stands at about 1,500 different books.
