Arabic books on the memory of Mexican society .. A legacy suffering neglect in the Palafoxiana library

Ghadeer Abu Snineh-Al Jazeera Net

Historians describe it as part of the memory of Mexican society and the memory of the world. It is a library of Palafoxiana, located in Puebla, the fourth largest Mexican city.

The history of the library began on September 5, 1646, when the ninth bishop of the city of Puebla, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, donated his own library of five thousand volumes to the schools of San Pedro and San Juan, provided that anyone who was able to read was allowed to borrow it, not only to church members And the Clergy, and this is why the Palafoxiana Library is the first public library in the Latin continent, contrary to the custom used at that time.

The Mexican Library contains manuscripts from 1473 to 1910, most of which are religious books and some are literary, and their total amounts to about 42 thousand books.

Al-Jazeera Net met the former director of the library Diana Isabelle Hermio, who in turn briefed us on some Arabic writings, such as for example a praise poem written by Italian Fernando Caesarian in Arabic, which was the language of science, literature and culture during the Arab rule of Andalusia, followed by the translation of the poem.

It also showed us a map of ancient Libya and some books written in ancient languages ​​such as Chaldean, Hebrew, and ancient Egyptian, in addition to Latin and ancient Greek. Books brought with him by Archbishop de Palafox - to whom the library was attributed - from Spain to Mexico, which joined what later became known as "New Spain".

Expansions were made later for the library, and it reopened after the expansion in 1773, and books were placed on two-story shelves, then a third floor of shelves was built for books from the nineteenth century.

The library is characterized by the presence of a rounded platform that enables readers to browse more than one book at a time, most of which are made of white pine wood, and the library deserved to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005.

The library usually opens its doors to researchers and scholars, as it embraces many cultural activities, supplementing the path of the bishop who founded it.

Regulatory body
Since its establishment, the library has had a regulatory body, working hours and deadlines for providing services, and a consulting and reading section. Those responsible for it imposed penalties for stealing or not preserving books. Rather, there were instructions explaining how to preserve books while reading.

In 1771, Archbishop Francisco Fabian e Fuero put in place more laws to regulate dealings in the library, and it remained in existence until 1852, when some church literature was confiscated and new provisions were established.

The city in which the library is located must be taken into consideration, which is Puebla de Los Angeles (Puebla Angels) that was founded in 1531, and was the second most important city in Mexico on the social, economic and political levels, as well as its religious importance represented by the presence of more than 360 churches in it, UNESCO included it in the World Heritage List in 1987.

The library has been associated with many important names in science and history, from its establishment and through the seventeenth century to the present day, and there are many studies that were conducted based on the manuscripts in it.

Diana Isabelle Hermiou expressed the importance of the library by saying, "Its shelves collect an index that expresses cosmic thought that includes various cognitive topics from religious sciences, natural sciences, etc., and European and American intellectual development can be observed through these manuscripts. The library also has a book organization according to the time period that includes writers." Medieval and classical eras. "

Neglected legacy
On the Arabic texts in the library, the library director Alex Helmer Latinista provided us with some titles, including: Ibn Sina's Law on Medicine, a Latin translator, issued in 1595, and the history of Muslims translated into Arabic by Latin, and issued in 1595.

In addition to a dictionary containing five languages, including Arabic, a French translation of the Holy Qur’an issued in 1672, and another Latin issued in 1698, and a manuscript entitled “Noah’s Ark” which contains texts in Arabic, and others.

Latinista indicated that it has not had any cooperation with any Arab academic or cultural institution to study these texts or even see them.