Islamic Library Curators
The Curators
ALAN NAFZGER’s Islamic Library Curators
Islamic Library Curators – The Curators – Pecan Street Press
The Curators – Lubbock ● Austin ● Fort Worth
Islamic Library Curators is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Copyright © 2016 Alan Nafzger
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 9781071494448
Islamic Library Curators
THE CURATORS
Islamic Library Curators Written by Alan Nafzger
Islamic Library Curators – FADE IN
BEGIN TITLES
EXT/INT. UNIVERSITY library in Mosul IRAQ – DAY
Islamic Library Curators
Walking into the building we see the sign on the wall, “Mosul University Library”.
Islamic Library Curators
A YOUNG MAN (18) enters the library with a large heavy backpack. He walks through the public part of the library. Students are using the library. The library is quiet and traditional.
Islamic Library Curators
The young man passes a glass display case. He stops. Inside the case is a very old book. He reads the sign identifying the text.
Islamic Library Curators
PAUSE TITLES
Islamic Library Curators
SUPERIMPOSE TRANSLATION: The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays is a Hadith collection by Sulaym ibn Qays, who entrusted it to Aban ibn abi-Ayyash. The book has received endorsement from five Infallible Imams. This manuscript survives from the early 10th Century.
Islamic Library Curators
CONTINUE TITLES
Standing at second glass case, we see a SCHOLAR giving a talk to a number of students. There are example of all there calligraphic styles – Hausa, Kufic and Maghrebi.
SCHOLAR
Raqqa’s scribes wrote in a variety of calligraphic styles, inks and colors: the African tradition of Hausa with thick brush strokes, the angled Kufic script from Persia and the curved and looping Maghrebi style. This city was a Medieval readers’ paradise, its inhabitants searching to read with a real passion volumes they could not possess, and making copies when they were too poor to buy what they wanted. You wouldn’t know it to look at it now, but this city has been a cistern for the richness of Islam.
The young man moves from the public area to a Private work room. Inside the work room we see five or six curators working on ancient manuscripts. The ancient Islamic texts are being restored, scanned into digital media, indexed and prepared for displayed.
An OLD CURATOR (75) rises from his desk when he sees the young man. He seems to be focusing on the backpack as he approaches the young man.
The young man opens the backpack and puts several old manuscripts on a table. The texts have been wrapped in protective paper and/or bubble wrap. The old curator seems happy. The young man is glowing with achievement.
END TITLES
SUPERIMPOSE: Mozul, Iraq (2013)
Ten or more jihadis enter the library. They shot up the place. Students go flying for cover. But the terrorists aren’t aiming for them. They are there to destroy the books. The shelves of books are riddled with bullets.
Several students make a break for the door. The terrorists notice their escape but continue to fire on the books. They stop to reload their Kalashnikovs. More students escape in this time.
The old curator grabs five texts into a milk crate and peaks out on the gunmen still firing.
OLD CURATOR
ISIS are here.
The young man throws his books back into the backpack. And escapes out the back door. Similarly, the other curators grab important texts and exit the library. They seem to have discussed it and have a plan to save some of the more important books.
The old curator exits the workroom, with the milk crate, into the public area. Bullets are flying. The ISIS jihadis have reloaded but have dispersed throughout the library.
The terrorists sweep tons of books off library shelves and tables and carry them into a courtyard.
They are opening windows and throwing books out onto a courtyard. Under the windows there are jihadis without weapons, who are kicking the books into a pile.
The old curator goes to the glass case and breaks it. He takes the library’s oldest text and carefully places it in the box with the other tests. The old curator, as calmly as possible, exits the library out the front door. Several terrorists, especially the leader, Abdel Lone (40), notice his exit but they are preoccupied with the thousands of books.
As the old curator escapes with a handful of texts, the terrorist move into the workroom. They throw all the ancient texts into the courtyard. The historical manuscripts are pushed into the pile with the other books.
They douse the manuscripts in gasoline. Then they toss a lit match. The brittle pages and their dry leather covers ignited in a flash. The old books burn faster than the newer books.
The old curator walks several blocks away before turning around. He sees a dark plume of smoke arising from the library courtyard. In a different direction but closer the young man watches the destruction.
EXT/INT. Zwaahir’s HOME – RAQQA, IRAQ
SUPERIMPOSE: Raqqa, Iraq (two days later)
The old curator arrives in a taxi. A child runs to inform his father. In time, the guest is greeted by the homeowner. The owner of the home is Zwaahir Khalifa and he greats his guest warmly.
The old curator has aged 10 years in the last week. He is dirty and frightened still. Exhausted, he has the same clothes he had on at the library. He has six texts in a milk crate. He has only a certain amount of money, not enough for the fare.
TAXI DRIVER
That’s not enough. I brought you 300 km.
The old curator is flustered and frozen. He is embarrassed, but Zwaahir steps up without hesitation.
Zwaahir
I have money. One minute please.
They enter the home. There is a wife and more than a few children running around. They all stop their play too look at the old curator and his box of old documents.
Zwaahir
(to daughter)
Please bring my friend water and food.
Zwaahir shows the old curator to a chair. Zwaahir goes to a separate room. The old curator sits looking at Zwaahir’s Private book collection.
CHILD
You are a curator of old books like my father?
The old curator is exhausted. He doesn’t speak but gestures to the milk crate and the old books inside.
The taxi driver waits outside. Zwaahir returns with money and pays the taxi driver.
Zwaahir reenters the home.
Zwaahir
We heard about the library. How bad was it?
OLD CURATOR
In minutes, the work of Mosul’s greatest scholars and scientists, preserved for centuries, hidden from the 19th-century jihadis, Ottoman, British and American conquerors, survivors of floods, bacteria, water, and insects, were consumed by the inferno.
Zwaahir
That bad?
(beat)
What remains?
The old curator gestures again to his milk crate.
OLD CURATOR
My staff were instructed to take what they could carry. I assume the texts are hidden?
Zwaahir
So out of the 30,000 volumes?
OLD CURATOR
Maybe 20 or 30.
Long beat.
Zwaahir
Clearly a tragedy.
OLD CURATOR
My entire life’s work, collecting. Organizing. Teaching.
Long beat.
OLD CURATOR
And now you. A librarian, a scholar and community leader; you must be prepared how will you react to these devils.
Another long beat.
OLD CURATOR
Will you save the texts?
Zwaahir
I have a family…
OLD CURATOR
And you have what 250,000 historical texts?
Zwaahir
Yes. About that.
OLD CURATOR
An association of curators?
Zwaahir
There are 45 libraries.
OLD CURATOR
They will be here before you can even meet.
Another long beat.
OLD CURATOR
You have a wonderful personal collection.
Zwaahir
Many I inherited from my father.
(beat)
I had 6 brothers and he chose me to care for the books.
You spoke and read Arabic the best?
Zwaahir
That might have been it.
(beat)
Funny I wanted to be a businessman.
OLD CURATOR
But you were hired by the library?
Zwaahir
Arabs from Saudi Arabia came in 1915 and and a lot of the books were taken out of the city. For years I traveled around the Islamic world buying obscure texts. No car, camel or I hitched a ride.
(half beat)
Took boats along every river, trying to persuade these villagers to give up their precious family heirlooms, or buying them and bringing them to this library.
OLD CURATOR
It’s not easy to travel in this part of the world.
Zwaahir
We can go to the library later and I will show you those.
OLD CURATOR
I want to see your books here, please.
Zwaahir’s WIFE and DAUGHTER emerge with food and drink. They lay everything out on a table.
The food and drink gather the old curators’ attention. But the men move into the library area to look closer at the books.
The old curator scans the texts on the shelves.
OLD CURATOR
Your collection has many secular volumes. Manuscripts about astronomy, poetry, mathematics, occult sciences and medicine.
Zwaahir
This is a 254-page volume on surgery and elixirs derived from birds, lizards and plants, written in Baghdad in 1684.
OLD CURATOR
Many of the manuscripts show that Islam is a religion of tolerance?
Zwaahir
Yes. Of course.
OLD CURATOR
Show me your most interesting piece.
Zwaahir takes out a book – a tiny, irregularly shaped Quran.
Zwaahir
From the 12th century, written on parchment made from the dried skin of a fish.
OLD CURATOR
Nice, I like the glittering Arabic letters.
Zwaahir
Silver and droplets of gold.
OLD CURATOR
Amazing. You will want to protect this.
Long beat.
Zwaahir
Well, yes of course. Shall we eat?
They sit and the old curator eats. He is polite but we can speculate he hasn’t eaten in the last two days.
INT. Bank – DAY
The Old Curator and Zwaahir enter the bank and withdraw a relatively small amount of money. Zwaahir’s two older SONS (15 & 16) wait outside the bank. They all then walk to the market.
INT. MARKET – DAY
Zwaahir buys four metal storage trunks. The son’s manage to hire a truck to serve as a taxi. The son’s load the trunks on a truck.
INT. Zwaahir HOME – DAY
One of the trunks are inside the home’s library. There is a triage of sorts, with the most valuable books packed away first. Zwaahir, wife and two daughters are wrapping the books in butcher paper. The texts are neatly laid in the trunks.
Zwaahir marks on the outside of the trunks, 001, 002, 003 and 004. His father’s collection are packed into these boxes.
EXT. Zwaahir HOME – DAY
The sons of Zwaahir (even the small ones) take these trunks into a garage area.
EXT. CENTRAL LIBRARY RAQQA – DAY
There is a meeting of local librarians. The old curator is there quietly listening. Zwaahir’s two sons are in the meeting. There are at least 20 men around the table. Zwaahir’s nephew MOHAMMED MEER is at the table.
LIBRARIAN #1
What do we have to do?
Zwaahir
What do you think is necessary?
Long beat.
Zwaahir
I think we need to take out the manuscripts from the big buildings and place them in the metal trunks available in the market. Discretely, disperse them around the city to family houses. We don’t want them finding the collections of manuscripts and stealing them or destroying them.
LIBRARIAN #1
Where will you find money to buy the necessary storage trunks?
Zwaahir
I was recreantly awarded a grant by a non-profit foundation in the UK grant to study English at Oxford University in the fall and winter.
Long beat.
Zwaahir
I’ve contacted them and asked if I can reallocate the funds to protect the manuscripts from the hands of Raqqa’s soon to be occupiers.
LIBRARIAN #2
How much money?
Zwaahir
$12,000.
LIBRARIAN #1
That isn’t near enough.
Zwaahir
That is why I need you to email and call your foreign acquaintances and ask them for your help.
(half beat)
I’ve called a number of people.
Zwaahir
Everyone has benefactors to call?
Zwaahir
If they are able have the money wired to our Association’s account.
LIBRARIAN #2
If help does arrive?
Zwaahir
Then we will hire the documents moved into Private homes. I think we are agreed to try to keep the documents in Raqqa?
LIBRARIAN #3
Whose homes?
Zwaahir
For example?
(half beat)
Your home.
Zwaahir
Do I need to remind you to be careful who you speak to here.
Mohammed
Given the political situation, I wouldn’t even speak about this to family members until the trunks are full and in your home.
Zwaahir
This is my nephew. He has been working in the library here since he was 12.
Zwaahir
I expect the money to be authorized in a day or two. So, until we can buy more trucks, I suggest that each library purchase at least one storage trunk and pack your most valuable manuscripts.
LIBRARIAN #1
With our moneys?
Mohammed
If your books are burned or stolen, you will have no job.
OLD CURATOR
They are coming to destroy your culture. Our culture.
Zwaahir
And my friend observed this personally in Mosul.
Zwaahir
We can move these trunks to safe homes if need be.
Mohammed
But be packed up and ready to go. If need be, we can evacuate them quickly.
LIBRARIAN #2
How?
Mohammed
I’m going to organize transportation. Trucks, Taxis, horse carts if needed.
Zwaahir
Beg, borrow or steal.
Zwaahir
Please organize your library as best as possible. Then submit your needs to Mohammed and myself. How many volumes? And I need that figure in cubic feet.
LIBRARIAN #3
How big are these trunks?
Mohammed
4 x 2 x 2 feet.
Each librarian seem to be doing the math some in their heads, other on paper.
Long beat.
However, when they have an answer, a look of defeat cross their faces. They all realize it is going to be an expensive and probably impossible task.
MONTAGE: LIBRARIES, BANK, MARKETPLACES, HOMES
Israel’s library Middle East, Islamic collection draws online attention
JERUSALEM-
Israel’s national library says the number of visitors to its Arabic website more than doubled last year, driven by a growing collection of digitised materials and an aggressive outreach campaign to the Arab world.
Around 650,000 users, predominantly from the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Algeria, visited the National Library of Israel’s English and Arabic sites in 2021, said library spokesman Zack Rothbart.
One of the most heavily-trafficked resources on the Arabic website is a newspaper archive with more than 200,000 pages of Arabic publications from Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine, said Raquel Ukeles, head of the library’s collections.
“We have been working on outreach to the Arab world, into the Arabic-speaking public here in Israel for over a decade and we have slowly built up a rich set of resources on our websites,” she said. They include the digital newspaper archives, manuscripts, posters, electronic books and music, she said. They are open access, allowing scholars and curious web browsers to visit.
Among the jewels in the crown of the collection are a 9th-century Quran from modern-day Iran with the earliest known example of Persian written in the Arabic script; an illuminated manuscript from 17th century India with illustrations of the life of Alexander the Great and a 16th century Ottoman Turkish text on ophthalmology.
https://thearabweekly.com/israels-library-middle-east-islamic-collection-draws-online-attention