HMML Global Operations: Iraq
Iraq
-
Region
Middle East -
Country
Iraq -
Cities
Alqūsh, Baghdad, Erbil, Khidr, Kirkuk, Mosul, Qarah Qūsh, and others -
Repositories
Chaldean Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Erbil; Chaldean Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Kirkuk; Chaldean Catholic Church, Patriarchate of Baghdad; Mar Behnam Monastery; Syrian Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Baghdad; Syrian Catholic Archdiocesan Library in Qarah Qūsh; Assyrian Church of the East, Patriarchate; and other libraries and private collections -
Languages
Syriac, Arabic, Arabic Garshuni, Neo-Aramaic, Armenian, Turkish, Turkish Garshuni, Persian, Italian, English, Georgian, Greek, Kurdish Garshuni, French, Russian, Tatar, Akkadian, and Phoenician -
Project Dates
2009–present -
Partners
Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux (CNMO)
Since 2009, HMML has partnered with CNMO and its founder, Father Najeeb Michaeel, OP, Archbishop of Mosul. Working with a team of young refugees displaced from their ancestral homes by recent conflicts, Abp. Najeeb has found and digitized thousands of manuscripts in dozens of collections throughout Iraq. In 2011–2012, HMML worked with its Iraqi partners to digitize one of the most valuable Syriac libraries in existence, at the historic 4th-century Mar Behnam monastery. In March 2015, ISIS occupied but the manuscripts had been safely hidden. Other collections were not so fortunate and are known to have been destroyed. Others remain hidden and inaccessible, available only through the images created by CNMO and HMML.
A 20th-c. lectionary written in Arabic Gashuni, collection of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Archdiocese of Mosul; the manuscript was destroyed after the fall of Mosul in 2014 (ASOM 00339)
Fr. Najeeb Michaeel, Archbishop of Mosul, with a manuscript at CNMO
A 17th/18th-c. Syriac grammar book, collection of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Archdiocese of Mosul; the manuscript was destroyed after the fall of Mosul in 2014 (ASOM 00107)
Ruined manuscripts at CNMO
An 18th-c. liturgical manuscript written in Syriac, collection of the Dominican Friars of Mosul (DFM 00013)
Fr. Najeeb Michaeel and HMML Executive Director Columba Stewart at Mar Mattai Monastery
Manuscript at CNMO
Nuhad ‘Abd al-Masih Boutros entering manuscript metadata at CNMO
Technicians Rita and Myriam cleaning and digitizing the manuscripts of the Chaldean Catholic Church collection, moved by caretakers from Baghdad to Erbil
Technicians with Fr. Najeeb (center) examining a manuscript at CNMO, Erbil
Columba Stewart at the bombed University of Mosul, Iraq. Photograph by Walid Mourad.
Technician paginating a manuscript at CNMO
Examining an Armenian manuscript at CNMO
A 16th-c. Gospel book written in Syriac, Arabic Garshuni, and Arabic, collection of the Syrian Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Baghdad (ASCBN 00052)
