by Mike Thomson
Abdul Basit’s passionate eulogy, spoken as if to a long-lost lover, left the room breathless and silent. I felt shy of disturbing this near-sacred reverie, but had one remaining question. One that had played on my mind ever since seeing how Amjad seemed to have retreated into the past. Would it not be best, I asked Abdul Basit, as Assad’s troops advanced by the day and Daraya lay empty, looted and dead, to forget thoughts of rebuilding the past, accept that the library was lost and build a new future around something else? Abdul Basit took his time to reply. When he did, his voice was unwavering, his tone utterly resolute. ‘You suggested that our plans to go back to Daraya and rebuild our secret library are now unrealistic, given the military situation. But I am as optimistic about this as I am that the sun will rise each day. I could not be more optimistic. I promise you, I will either go back and do this, or I will die trying. My ultimate hope is that one day my wife and I will rebuild the library together. I would love this to happen. It would be a dream come true.’
Sadly, the omens do not look good. What was once a civil war has morphed into a near-global one, with most participants split along Sunni or Shia Muslim sectarian lines. Many nations have either sent fighters themselves or paid proxy armies to do battle for them. As many as half a million people are now thought to have died, 3000 of them in Daraya alone. Eleven million more have been displaced from their homes. Not long ago President Bashar al-Assad’s days in office were thought to be numbered. Yet as I write these words, his blood-stained grip on power looks stronger than ever. Russian military muscle has turned his once failing war around and his forces surround Idlib, held back only by a tenuous ceasefire agreed by Ankara and Moscow. So long as his powerful allies stick by his side, and Islamist extremists continue to plague this land, there seems little hope for free speech, tolerance and other human rights in Syria. The very values upon which the now ransacked secret library was built.
Yet there is something about the people of Daraya, something about their faith in the power of books and the joy of learning, something in their community’s strength, resilience and sheer sense of purpose, that utterly transcends the values of those ranged against them. An invisible something that leaves an outsider like me, welcomed among them as a faraway friend, convinced that in the end, they will succeed. I can only hope this happens. Not just for those who created this extraordinary library, but for mankind itself. To see hope triumph once more over pessimism, creation over destruction and books over bombs, would be a victory for us all.
Shells fired by Syrian government forces hit Daraya
Living and dying under siege in Daraya
Daraya: a town without walls and windows
Books rescued for the secret library from bombed and abandoned buildings
More books are found for the secret library
Fourteen-year-old Amjad tends the bookshelves of the secret library
Chief Librarian Amjad enjoying a quick read during a break in his duties…
No fuel, no road, no produce, but life goes on in Daraya
Sifting through the rubble during a break in the bombing, Daraya
Twenty-four-year-old Saeed refuses to leave what is left of his home
Abdul Basit relaxes with a book in the sanctuary of the secret library
Anas Habib in the secret library
Books and bullets: Omar Abu Anas reading on the front line
In Abu Malik al-Shami’s graffiti a little girl teaches a soldier the meaning of love
This picture by Abu Malik al-Shami, drawn on a wall amid the ruins of Daraya, inspired people around the world
Twelve-year-old Islam reads with her mother in a home missing walls
Getting together at the secret library
Omar giving a lecture
Daraya’s women and children call on the world for help
Books from the secret library being looted by men in uniform
The ransacked secret library, with once treasured books littering the floor
Malik al-Rifaii prepares books for the mobile library (below), Idlib
Amjad lovingly cleans books in the secret library
Some of the secret library team
Acknowledgements
It’s hard to know where to start with so many people to thank for helping to make this book possible. But I’ll begin with my remarkable wife, Jane Ray, a book widow for much of the last three years. During this time, I’ve been an elusive, shadowy figure, hidden away in my increasingly chaotic study when not absent entirely on foreign assignments. Add to all this, the interrupted holidays, alarming skype calls and pinging nocturnal texts, sometimes bringing frightening news from Daraya. Without Jane’s never-ceasing support, understanding and insightful encouragement I would have struggled to finish this book.
My limited command of Arabic has also left me deeply indebted to those who have interpreted my years of conversations with people in Syria. Stamina, patience and prolonged spells of deep concentration were required for these exchanges, many of which were barely audible over crackly, constantly failing WhatsApp and Skype lines. Sensitivity and toughness were needed too, given that some of the discussions were harrowing in nature. I would particularly like to thank Miriam El Khalef for her early translation work. Miriam’s deep concern for those she was talking to, and her dedication in ensuring that their words were accurately relayed, helped forge what came to be lasting friendships. My thanks also to Steve Ali, a Syrian himself, for his calm professionalism and care with later translations.
This book has been further enriched by the vigorous historical digging undertaken by Curtis Gallant, a resourceful and talented researcher and family friend. Curtis’s remarkable grasp of Syrian cultural history combined with his infectious enthusiasm made him a pleasure to work with. Thanks must also go to the BBC’s Bridget Harney who commissioned my radio documentary about the secret library, a broadcast that later inspired this book. Praise, too, to the Weidenfeld & Nicolson editorial team: from my initial publisher and editor, Kirsty Dunseath, a constant source of ideas and encouragement who guided me through what sometimes seemed mission impossible, to her successor, Jenny Lord, and her impressive team, Craig Lye, Jennifer Kerslake and Elizabeth Allen.
Most of all, I would like to thank the inspiring people of Daraya for enabling me to tell their extraordinary story. Even when close to starving, cut-off from their loved ones and terrorised by snipers and barrel bombs, they never tired of my endless questions, allowing me to share their often nightmarish world. Some, in particular, deserve extra special mentions. The indomitable Malik, for whom, nothing was impossible. Whether it meant finding many of the precious photographs in this book, tracking down members of the secret library team or helping me verify numerous dates, names and events. The endearing young Amjad, whose heart seemed forever pinned to his sleeve, and poetic and spiritual Abdul Basit, whose moving words and emotional honesty touched me deeply. Also, the wise and hugely respected Muhammad, who offered me advice and guidance, along with just about everyone else in besieged and bombarded Daraya. I’m grateful too, in so many ways, to Anas, Sara, Homam and Rateb, who have also become trusted and enduring friends. I have come to love and admire them all.
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References and Further Reading
1 Strathcarron, Ian, Innocence and War: Mark Twain’s Holy Land Revisited (Courier Corporation, 2012), p.84
2 Shahid, Irfan, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 1 (Harvard University Press, 2002), p.218
3 Grove, George, ‘Syrian Legends No.2–The Grapes of Daraya’, Once a Week, Volume 6, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, ed. (1 March 1862), p.280
4 Cobb, Paul M., White Banners: Contention in ‘Abbasid Syria, 750–880 (SUNY Press, 2001)
5 Allen, Susan Jane, and Emilie Amt, eds. The Crusades: A Reader, Volume 8 (University of Toronto Press, 2014), chapter 4, sec
tion 33
6 Kahf, Mohja, ‘Water Bottles and Roses’ (21 December 2011) www.mashallahnews.com/water-bottles-roses
7 Kahf, Mohja, ‘Nonviolence in Syria’, Fellowship 78.1–3 (2014)
8 Oweis, Khaled Yacoub, ‘Local Dynamics in the Syrian Conflict: Homegrown Links in Rebel Areas Blunt Jihadist Ascendency’, (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2016)
9 Wellisch, Hans H. ‘Ebla: The World’s Oldest Library’, The Journal of Library History, 6.3 (University of Texas Press, 1981), p.488
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Rudavsky, Joseph, To Live with Hope, to Die with Dignity: Spiritual Resistance in the Ghettos and Camps (Jason Aronson, Inc., 1997), p.65
13 Spiritual Resistance in the Ghettos, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005416
14 Rudavsky, p.64
15 www.pri.org/stories/2013-06-22/profiling-change-burma-secret-booklender
16 Ibid.
17 Tammam, Abu, ‘The Sword is More Veracious’, trans. Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych, The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender and Ceremony in the Classical Arabic Ode (Indiana University Press, Copyright © 2002). Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press.
18 Al-Ma‘arri, ‘I No Longer Steal from Nature’, trans. Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose (Cambridge University Press, 1922), p.107.
19 Adonis, ‘A Time between Ashes and Roses’, trans. Shawkat M. Toorawa, A Time Between Ashes and Roses (Syracuse University Press, 2004). Reprinted with permission of Syracuse University Press.
20 Al-Masri, Maram, ‘Have You Seen Him?’, trans. Theo Dorgan, Liberty Walks Naked (Southword Editions, 2018). Reprinted with permission of Southword Editions.
21 Amnesty International, ‘Human Slaughterhouse’ (2016) www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/human_slaughterhouse.pdf
22 Amnesty International, ‘Harrowing accounts of torture, inhuman conditions and mass deaths in Syria’s prisons’ (18 August 2016) www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/08/harrowing-accounts-of-torture-inhuman-conditions-and-mass-deaths-in-Syrias-prisons
23 Alhaji, Faisal bin Mohamad, The Tears of Men (Dar Al Kalam). Lines translated by Steve Ali, 2019.
Illustration Credits
All photographs are provided courtesy of the media department of the Local Council of Daraya City, with the following exceptions:
here
Saeed refuses to leave his home: Ahmad Muaddamani, Humans of Syria
here
Omar Abu Anas: Malik al-Rifaii
here
Daraya’s women and children: Karam Al-Shami
here
The ransacked secret library and books being looted: CNN/Fred Pleitgen
here
Malik al-Rifaii and the mobile library: Mohammad Al-Emam
here
The secret library team: Ahmad Ma’dmani
Credit: Deiniol Buxton
Mike Thomson is a multi-award-winning World Affairs correspondent for the BBC. Over the last decade, his work has taken him to many of the world’s most troubled places. These have included Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea, Darfur, DR Congo, Sierra Leone, North Sinai and the Central African Republic. He has reported undercover in places like Libya, Zimbabwe and Myanmar and covered some of the world’s biggest news events including the war in Syria, the election of several US presidents, the devastating Haiti earthquake, the fall of Muammar Gaddafi and the death of Nelson Mandela.
PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.
I.F. STONE, proprietor of I. F. Stone’s Weekly, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.
BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of The Washington Post. It was Ben who gave the Post the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.
ROBERT L. BERNSTEIN, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation’s premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.
For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by The Washington Post as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.
Peter Osnos, Founder