45 years ago, Kuwaiti heritage researcher Saleh Al-Misbah unleashed his hobby in collecting rare books, magazines and manuscripts, using his passion for the Arabic language and Islamic history as fuel for that hobby.
As for Al-Misbah, who also holds a membership in the Board of Directors of the Kuwaiti Heritage Society, the first drops of rain were in the collection of books that he acquired with the launch of the first book fair held in Kuwait in 1975, followed by an exhibition for the Arab book, and a third for the Islamic book in the same year, where he was in the meantime. A student at the Teachers Institute before joining Kuwait University to become a teacher of the Arabic language.
Al-Masbah began to buy what was delicious from books, magazines and rare publications, whether from exhibitions, second-hand markets, auctions, or full libraries that he used to buy from their owners or heirs, and he also traveled to various countries with the intention of expanding and diversifying his holdings base, until he reached the situation of acquiring more than 120,000 books, 50,000 magazines and newspapers, 23,000 videos and thousands of documents, in addition to 10,000 photographs.
House of Books
Al-Masbah dedicated his entire basement to his home, and with the passage of days, collectibles, including rare things, began to pile up on the shelves of the library and inside its various rooms, and crawled to occupy a significant space inside and outside the house, until the matter reached to storing them in boxes on the roof of his home and covering them for fear of The sun flames in summer and the weather is cold and rain in winter.
Public and official interaction with Al-Masbah's tweet and his obtaining a promise to allocate a floor in the National Council for Culture and Arts to display books (Al-Jazeera)
Al-Masbah narrowed his house with what it welcomed, and he became between the hammer of fear over his rare possessions and the anvil of tons of tons in his house, so he did not find anything through all the doors of the competent government agencies, hoping that someone would care about his cultural, literary, political and other treasures, but he did not find any response from them. Over a full 10 years.
As a last resort;
Al-Misbah posted a tweet on his account on the social networking site "Twitter", which he attached to pictures of hills of collectibles, in which he expressed his wish to have a public library open to all, in which to display his rare antiques, while confirming that the public libraries in the country are free of such valuable books.
This tweet sparked the reactions of Kuwaiti and Gulf readers and tweeters who traded and commented on it extensively, wishing that one of the official authorities would respond to save the library and its holdings in any way.
And they are nothing but hours;
Until he contacted the Kuwaiti Minister of Information, Muhammad Al-Jabri, and the Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature Kamel Al-Abd Al-Jalil, where the latter promised him to allocate an entire floor in the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature to display his books.
Waiting for the library
Al-Masbah - who met Al-Jazeera Net - told us that the prospective library will only accommodate one-third of his holdings, so he found no way to save the remaining two-thirds except by renting a store at his own expense to use it to save one of the two-thirds, while he will keep the last third in his basement.
The way to transport these holdings to the prospective library and the rented store was not furnished with roses, so it was also necessary to have a crane carrying the tons on the roof of the house, to be carried on the back of the carriages that the swimming pool brought for this purpose.
Among the rubble of these piled up books are rare Arabic publications, including those dating back to the 1920s and earlier.
The Al-Misbah library also includes what is related to Kuwait and its old publications in the fields of politics, literature, poetry, arts and novels, in addition to documents belonging to its ministries and departments before independence, as well as the first issues of "Al-Tawhid", "Kuwait", "Al-Fajr", "Al-Shaab" magazines, and others. One of those copies dates back to 1928, and he also owns 350 copies of Kuwait University, saying that the university itself does not own it.
The accumulation of the al-Masbah's valuables prompted him to write a tweet asking to save his books and antiques (Al-Jazeera)
Rare documents
Among the most prominent documents that Al-Misbah is proud to possess are Qur’an manuscripts dating back 280 years ago, and a copy of the book “History of Kuwait” by the historian Abdul Aziz Al-Rasheed, issued in 1926. He also owns 300 books from all Gulf countries dating back to the 1950s and 1960s, and they vary between books chronicling those rulers Countries, and other documents for publications in their reigns.
In 1984 Al-Misbah began collecting "Kuwait publications" due to what he saw as a deficiency in this field. He also agreed with his amateur counterparts to double their efforts in this field after the liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion, because most government libraries were empty as a result of sabotage and looting. Footsteps to make up for this deficiency.
Al-Misbah participated in more than 120 exhibitions, some of which were inside Kuwait and some were held in Gulf and Arab countries, where the attendees of those exhibitions were able to view the collections, which also included video tapes on which materials from Kuwait TV were recorded, such as serials, plays and documentaries about the Iraqi invasion. As well as the Iran-Iraq war.
Al-Misbah worked as Editor-in-Chief of Al-Bayan magazine, as well as the Secretary-General of the Writers Association, and authored many books and publications on Kuwaiti affairs, in addition to his participation in writing many books, including those related to Hajj campaigns on camels and throughout history.
And over the years;
Al-Misbah became the first reference in Kuwait with regard to publications, including books and magazines, which authorized him to review more than 12 books, but what saddens him is that the interest in culture is no longer the same after politics swept all fields, wishing that Kuwait would see the jewel of the Gulf again, It returns to its familiar role as a beacon of science and culture.