Tag: 7. Mai 2003

Graham Shaw, Director of the British Library Oriental & India Office Collections, has posted on IFLANet an
“assessment of damage to Libraries and Archives in Iraq”, which gives a useful concise summary of what is known (and not known) so far about the fate of printed books, MSS & archival collections in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and elsewhere. It can be found at
http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/admin/iraq0205.htm
[Iraqcrisis List]
Excerpts:
National Archives of Iraq (which shared the same building as the National Library): containing documents from the Ottoman period onwards – size of contents unknown (no published catalogue
traced) – likewise looted and burnt, but again some material at least (e.g. Ottoman cadastral registers) reported to have been evacuated beforehand and to be safe […]
[Basra] Archives of the Court of Justice: contain the Ottoman period documents on the Basra region – nothing known […]
[Conclusion] Most serious ‘irreplaceable’ loss = National Archives – probably some documents from the Ottoman period will be duplicated in archives in Turkey – some documents from the British period will also be found in BL (India Office Records) – but by no means all.
See also the French “APERCU SUR L}ETAT DES BIBLIOTHEQUES ET DEPOTS D}ARCHIVES IRAKIENS AU TERME DE LA GUERRE D}AVRIL 2003” in the same Mailing List.

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