Aleppo’s libraries are the Aleppians’ memory keepers

Between 1950s and 1970s, the libraries in Aleppo governorate played an important role in enriching the cultural, literary and scientific movement there.

Those libraries were among the most important landmarks of Aleppo city as they contained diverse valuable books and publications that attracted scholars, intellectuals, students and clergymen.

It was said that the neighborhood of “Bab Al-Ahmar”, located next to Aleppo castle, was the center of  those libraries which included various titles and research works, and witnessed a notable turnout of reading lovers in addition to an  active purchasing movement.

 After the 1980s and with the booming of the construction process in the city of Aleppo, most of those libraries moved to the center of the city. Some bookstore owners were keen to buy their shops near Aleppo university in order to increase their sales.

“Istanbuli” library, located in the middle of “Akyol” neighborhood, is one of the most famous and ancient libraries in Aleppo. Its owner, Kamal Istanbuli told the E-Syria blog that during the 1960s, his father, Yahy aI Stanbuli, was one of the founders of the first and the oldest public library  in “Bab Al-Ahmar” market in old Aleppo, in addition to the “Ajjan Al-Hadid” library at the entrance of “Khan Al-Wazir”, during the sixties of the last century.

Kamal added that in order to maintain the profession, enhance his cultural hobby and preserve his father’s valuable library, he decided to open a public library with a printing and publishing house in the middle of Akyol Street. That was in the beginning of  2006, he pointed out.

This public library included, according to Kamal, rare and valuable books in Arabic including in the fields of legal sciences and herbal medicine in addition to dictionaries of Arabic, English, French and German languages, poetry collections and books dating back to more than two hundred years .

Kamal’s printing and publishing  house participation in international fairs never stopped despite the crisis in the country, noting his library’s participation in more than twenty book fairs around the world between 2010 and 2021, including in Morocco, Tunis, Oman, Egypt, Sudan, UAE and Syria.

He pointed out that the library closed in the beginning of 2013 due to the terrorist war on Syria. It was restored and reopened in 2017. During the restoration period, a large part of the library’s contents and publications was transferred to Cairo and the library managed to participate in all the international book fairs that were held.

RawaaGhanam