Syria's Secret Library

Syria's Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege- Mike Thomson
PubcliAffairs/Hachette Book group
Release Date: August 20, 2019

Rating:
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Synopsis: Daraya lies on the fringe of Damascus, just southwest of the Syrian capital. Yet for four years it lived in another world. Besieged by government forces early in the Syrian Civil War, its people were deprived of food, bombarded by heavy artillery, and under the constant fire of snipers. But deep beneath this scene of frightening devastation lay a hidden library. While the streets above echoed with shelling and rifle fire, the secret world below was a haven of books.

Long rows of well-thumbed volumes lined almost every wall: bloated editions with grand leather covers, pocket-sized guides to Syrian poetry, and no-nonsense reference books, all arranged in well-ordered lines. But this precious horde was not bought from publishers or loaned by other libraries--they were the books salvaged and scavenged at great personal risk from the doomed city above.

The story of this extraordinary place and the people who found purpose and refuge in it is one of hope, human resilience, and above all, the timeless, universal love of literature and the compassion and wisdom it fosters.

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How do people cope with disaster, war, hunger, and despair?  How do they live day after day in circumstances that no one who hasn't lived it can ever really imagine?  Syria's Secret Library offers readers a glimpse of hope for humanity in war-ravaged Syria.  When Assad's regime began cracking down, and then bombing, regions that protested his dictatorship, one of those towns hoping for change in Syria was the ancient town of Daraya.  Home to students and engineers, families and generations of farmers, Daraya had long been known for peaceful protests in favor of human rights and democracy.  When Assad struck back, Daraya became a besieged town regularly bombed and cut off from the rest of Syria.  Those who lived there rarely-if ever- had contact with families outside Daraya, either because of poor communications or because of the fear that their calls would be monitored and the families considered political enemies of the regime.  Children no longer had schools to go to, and people soon were limiting their rations to one bowl of watery soup per day to try and stretch out what little food they had while waiting for outside help to rescue them.

It is in this terrifying world that BBC journalist Mike Thomas began making his connections, and talking to a few of the brave people of Daraya through often erratic internet communications.  And while he discovers the terrible situation they are in, he also learns about how they retain hope for the future: their secret library.  A core group of locals began rescuing books from bombed and abandoned houses and, while carefully keeping track of the books in hopes that one day their owners would be able to return to Daraya and claim them, these brave men carried the books off to a relatively secure basement.  Over time a library system developed: people could check books out and return them, lecture series on a wide variety of subjects were held, and men, women, and children were able to escape the stresses of daily life into the safety of a beloved library and books for a few hours each day.  

Throughout Syria's Secret Library we come to care about the individuals Thomson talks to, we admire their courage and their strength in the face of overwhelming circumstances.  And there is nothing more courageous than their belief that books and knowledge will be what not only eventually topples the regime, but what truly rebuilds Syria.  That books are food for the soul, their stories and words as essential to human beings as oxygen. And we can all hope that books will triumph in the end, and creation and hope will overcome destruction and hatred. 

This is a highly emotionally impactful story of people the Western world has seen and understood only briefly from snippets on the nightly news. Thomson clearly cares for each of these people, not as interview subjects, but as friends- and hopes to reach out to the rest of us to show us the civilians beneath the rhetoric.  A story combining the terrors and tragedy of war with the hopes and indomitable spirit of people, this is a true-life story of everyday people showing humanity at its inspiring best.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: and their race to save the world's most precious manuscripts- Joshua Hammmer
Simon & Schuster
Release Date: April 19, 2016

Rating:
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Synopsis:  In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: to preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers by saving texts from sure destruction.  With bravery and patience, he organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 377,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. This real-life thriller is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty and imagination of their culture.  It is also the story of a man who, through extreme circumstances discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it.

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The diverse and beautiful history of Western Africa- Timbuktu in particular- and its influential role in science, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and music is little known to the Western world. But the role of Timbuktu both past and present is celebrated here in Joshua Hammer's outstanding The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu.  This is the story of Abdel Kader Haidara, who becomes obsessed with the manuscript legacy of Mali and Timbuktu in particular.  From the 1980s on he worked to convince local families who had, for generations, guarded treasured, fragile manuscripts that it is time for the manuscripts to be protected in modern ways. 45 libraries were built in Timbuktu to house and conserve over 377,000 manuscripts written on goat, sheep, even fish skin.  Some are loose pages while others are bound and decorated with gold and illustrated in vividly colored geometric designs. From the twelfth century onwards, these manuscripts contain generations of writings on Sufism, music, law, astronomy, and history.  Haidara works with professionals from across the globe to perfect conservation methods for these texts and almost single handedly helps revitalize the cultural and scholarly importance of Timbuktu.

But then in 2012 came Al Qaeda: Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Iyad Ag Ghali and their jihadi extremists. Timbuktu is taken and becomes a center for their push to control all of Mali and develop a modern day caliphate.  Everyone knows what Al Qaeda does to art, manuscripts, and the beauty of past ages that does not line up with their view of the world.  It was only a matter of time, Haidara knew, before the treasured texts were destroyed.

And so begins the story of how Haidara, his co-workers, and everyday citizens of Mali worked to smuggle over 377,000 texts out of the libraries they had built in Timbuktu and to the safety of Bamako in Southern Mali.  Perhaps one of the most dangerous and large-scale modern day smuggling operations used cars, donkey carts, boats, and anything else they could find to rescue this incredible cultural treasure.  Part history, part modern journalism, this book is a brilliant, true-life adventure story celebrating the bravery of ordinary citizens who believe passionately in doing the right thing- and that protecting beauty and history is worth overcoming all odds.  It is a triumph of good over evil,  while reminding us that these dangers are still very much present.

Hammer's familiarity with the region through multiple trips helps him bring to life Timbuktu's colorful story.  This brilliantly written, fast-paced page turner lives up to its name and will keep readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish, leaving them both thrilled and inspired by this group of devoted librarians, who are truly bad-ass in the best sense fo the word.