BAGHDAD -

The destruction of the Baghdad Library at the hands of the Mongols in the year 656 AH was one of the most heinous crimes in the history of human thought, as it was the greatest library in the world at the time, where various types of science, literature and arts were collected.

Despite the spread of the killing, terror and destruction machine of Hulagu’s army, some students of science moved to save what they could save from books, including the book “The Vocabulary in the Strange Qur’an” by Abu Ragheb Al-Isfahani, which was recovered from the Tigris River before the water destroyed it.

Al-Shibli: The process of destroying books was not fleeting, but rather scratched and disrupted intellectual knowledge for a long time (Al-Jazeera)

Book massacre

Assistant Professor Dr. Hilal Kazem al-Shibli believes that the frequent destruction of books during the Mongol occupation of Baghdad was caused by the chaos and confusion that the city witnessed, which is the jewel of knowledge, as it was teeming with libraries and the role of scholars, princes and dignitaries, and most of them left Baghdad during the invasion. Prone to burn and damage.

Al-Shibli shows to Al-Jazeera Net that this issue was not fleeting, but rather scratched and disrupted intellectual knowledge for a long time, because the products of the first two scientists are the basis of scientific and intellectual knowledge, on which researchers depend. In the aftermath of that period, Baghdad witnessed dark periods as a result of the occupation, the burning of libraries and the emigration of scholars.

Al-Shibli believes that the destruction of books was not selective, because most of the abusers did not differentiate between a book of a doctrine or another, and the Mongol soldier did not know the language of the Arabs, so he distinguished and destroyed them. Rather, the large number of destruction and vandalism swept those libraries towards the Tigris River, so the ink mixed with the water and discolored. Ink and crayons, as well as the copious blood that shed in Baghdad following the barbaric occupation.

One of the few books that escaped destruction is the book "Vocabulary in the Strange Qur'an" (communication sites)

Vocabulary book

Among the few books that survived the destruction is the book “Vocabulary in the Strange Qur’an” by Al-Hussein bin Muhammad Al-Ragheb Al-Isfahani, who died in 502 AH (1108 AD), a writer who lived in the city of Baghdad, his origins go back to Isfahan. He wrote and wrote on many topics, most notably interpretation and literature. And rhetoric, according to the writer and writer Asaad Abdullah.

Abdullah adds to Al Jazeera Net that this book is one of the most famous and beautiful Al-Isfahani books and the most useful, as it explains the difficult words that were mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, and is characterized by the arrangement that relied on the alphabets as in the linguistic dictionaries, and this made it easier for the researcher to get what he wanted without trouble and in the shortest time.

Abdullah confirms that the book has a great scientific advantage and prestige represented in its guidance to the keys of the Qur’anic text, as well as in the mechanism of its preparation and the form of its arrangement according to the alphabets, and that was about 10 centuries ago, which is the same way that researchers and writers walked in our time, and this is a scientific precedent Great for Esfahani.

Abdullah quotes from the specialists several observations about the book "Al-Mufradat", including the lack of attribution of sayings to their authors, and the impact of his belief on the interpretation of some verses. He also included foreign names under more than one root and it was better to separate them.

Al-Douri: The role of the book is summarized in revealing the origins of the word, following the borrowed meanings, denying illusory meanings, universal rules and the rules of the majority (Al-Jazeera)

Civilization obliteration

For his part, the specialist in the Arabic language, Dr. Muhammad Abdul-Qadir Al-Douri, says that Baghdad was the destination of the world in knowledge and science, and the field of linguistic studies in it took a large amount, until the Baghdadi school of grammar was considered a significant doctrine, with its origins, foundations and scholars, and in that active era of history The Ummah A scholar appeared, originally from Isfahan, lived in Baghdad and took knowledge from its scholars, and he emerged until he was associated with Al-Ghazali because of his knowledge and wide knowledge.

Al-Douri adds - to Al-Jazeera Net - that what Al-Isfahani made for the Arabic Quranic library is the book "Vocabulary", whose work is summarized in revealing the origins of the word, tracing borrowed meanings, denying illusory meanings, and total and majority rules.

Al-Douri narrates how the books had a story written in the ink of the Tigris River after it became a floating embrace and exhausted death for tens of thousands of books that were thrown into it, and the book “Al-Mufradat” had a share of the obliteration ceremony of the civilization of Arab Muslims in the Tigris River, which watched criminals as they killed science and drowned libraries in an atmosphere Life stopped in him, leaving death to dominate the place, to take the breath away, and to clothe Baghdad with blackness.

Al-Khuza’i: The manuscript believed to be the original draft of the book “Al-Mufradat” is in the Qadiriyah Library in Baghdad (Al-Jazeera)

Save the books

In turn, the academic and researcher, Dr. Mahmoud Shams Al-Din Al-Khuzai, describes the "fall of Baghdad" at the hands of the Mongols as a great loss for Islamic culture and civilization, as a large number of rare scientific literature was set on fire. The Mongols also burned the House of Wisdom, which is the greatest libraries of the world at that time. They threw books into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers until it was said that "the water of the Tigris River turned red and blue due to the blood of the dead and the ink of the books that were drowned."

Al-Khuza'i confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that the manuscript, which is believed to be the original draft of the book "The Vocabulary of the Qur'an" by Al-Isfahani, is in the Qadiriyah Library in Baghdad, where a Muslim was able during the days of the Mongol occupation to retrieve it from the Tigris River, and noted on its first page that "he pulled it out of the Tigris River among the The books that Hulagu and his people threw in it.

Al-Khuza’i mentions the words written by the savior of the book by saying, “I pulled this book out of the Tigris River after the Tatars threw it at it in the year 656 AH, and I am the poor to him, the Most High, Muhammad bin Abi Bakr bin Abi Nawas,” noting that the rest of the text is not clear because of the flow of ink under the influence of water. .

Al-Khuza’i believes that although the biography of the savior of the book was not mentioned in the translation books, he imposed his mention on those who came after him, to be a witness to a horrific historical crime that coincided with the crime of the fall of Baghdad, namely throwing the treasures of science and human knowledge into the Tigris River, as if the man was screaming from the depths of history in the face of those Those who deny this incident, and he says to them, "Rather, the Tatars did it, and they did something worse." Those lines that the book's savior wrote in his own handwriting summarize the tragedy of the Arab book in Iraq.

knowledge bleeding

For his part, the Islamic thinker and historian Dr. Imad Al-Din Khalil says that "these lost manuscripts are gone forever, as the books that were not destroyed were transferred at that time to the city of Maragheh in Iran."

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Khalil estimates that about 90% of the manuscripts in Baghdad's libraries are damaged, and the rest of these works are referred to by the writer Karl Brockelmann in his book "The History of Arabic Literature."

In the same context, the publisher and translator Hussein considered the end of the Mongol occupation of Baghdad and the burning of all its libraries - including the House of Wisdom - a major disaster, as the Tigris River mixed with the colors of blood and ink, and the invasion of Hulagu not only stopped at Baghdad, but crossed it to all the cities of Iraq, in an attempt to obliterate Everything related to the Arabism of Iraq, and this is the case of all invaders and occupiers.

And Nahba adds to Al Jazeera Net that the series of looting of manuscripts and precious books continues, whether by stealing them, buying them, or fraudulently acquiring and smuggling them abroad, noting that the British traveler Welsen Betj is one of the most prominent thieves of Baghdad's books, as he stole more than 1200 manuscripts from Iraq and transferred them to a library. British Museum, and the thefts are still in front of the eyes without extending a hand to stop the bleeding of these cultural thefts.

He concludes that Iraqi libraries and presses have recently flourished, especially after Iraq's exit from Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, as the competent authorities have spared no effort to deliver the juice of Iraqi thought represented by books to all parts of the Arab world.