The northern metropolis has long been renowned for its libraries, bookstores and rare books preserved for centuries.

But when Mosul was under the control of IS from 2014 to 2017, reading works that contravened the rigorous ideology of the jihadists was prohibited and even punished.

This is how thousands of works of philosophy, law, science and poetry went up in smoke during book burnings, while the jihadists resold certain precious books on the black market.

"When we came back we saw (...) the books removed from their shelves, on the floor and burned," recalls Mohamed Younès, director of the prestigious university library.

A librarian shows a book from the university library in Mosul, northern Iraq, on January 31, 2022 Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP

Despite the inestimable losses, the brand new building should reopen its doors at the end of February, after renovation work financed by a UN agency.

Built on four floors, the library with elegant dark glass facades will initially have more than 32,000 books on the shelf, in addition to titles that can be consulted online.

Eventually it should house a million.

"Before, we had more than a million, some of which could not be found in any other university in Iraq," sighs Mr. Younès.

The establishment, founded in 1967, was deprived of 85% of its works.

With the jihadists at the gates of Mosul, "we were only able to transfer rare books and a limited number of foreign periodicals".

To compensate for the losses, Mr. Younès however evokes a “very large number” of book donations made by “international or Arab universities to allow the rebirth of the library”.

Books on a shelf in the university library in Mosul, northern Iraq, on January 31, 2022 Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP

"Well-known personalities, from Mosul or Iraq, have also contributed, by digging into their personal shelves", adds the fifty-year-old.

"Mother of Books"

While awaiting its move, the library has taken up residence in premises that are too cramped in the faculty of engineering.

The yellow shelves are crumbling under the collections stacked on top of each other.

Books are everywhere, tied up on tables and desks, stored in boxes.

Tarek Attiya, 34, was a student in Mosul before starting a thesis in Arabic linguistics at the University of Tikrit.

His search for certain titles led him to visit the universities of Kirkuk and Mosul.

"The University of Mosul is the mother of all books. There is a big difference between what was once and the situation after IS", regrets Mr. Attiya, even if he recognizes a "timid improvement" .

A historic city of merchants and aristocrats, Mosul boasted a very rich cultural and intellectual life.

The entrance to a bookstore in Mosul, northern Iraq, January 31, 2022 Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP

Between donations from large families, local production - the first printing press in Iraq was established in Mosul in the second half of the 19th century - and cultural exchanges, this historic commercial crossroads in the Middle East preciously preserved thousands of rare and old works, notably liturgical ones.

The library of the Waqf, the public body that manages Muslim religious property, thus contained parchments 300 or 400 years old.

"They have all disappeared," laments its manager, Ahmed Abd Ahmed.

Daily visitors

Al-Noujaïfi Street, historically that of booksellers and booksellers, still bears the scars of destruction.

Along the freshly paved road, the abandoned shops line up.

Beneath the stone arches of old buildings, mounds of rubble wait to be cleared away.

The storefront of a bookstore in Mosul, northern Iraq, January 31, 2022 Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP

Only a handful of traders have reopened after paying for the restoration work themselves, like the septuagenarian Osama al-Karkaji who sells religious books, notebooks and pens in the bookshop inherited from his father.

The Mosul Central Library reopened at the end of 2019 after renovations.

The public establishment founded in 1921 housed 121,000 titles, including “books and magazines dating back almost a century for some”, confides its director, Jamal al-Abd Rabbo.

On its shelves are lined up the old works bound in leather, with worn horn and withered paper.

"We lost 2,350 books of literature, sociology, or religion," said Mr. al-Abd Rabo.

Small consolation: between purchases and donations, the establishment now has 132,000 books, he adds.

"Some of our visitors come daily, for an hour or two, to read."

© 2022 AFP