The project will digitize approximately 250 manuscripts in the collection of the Great Omari Mosque, a 14th-century mosque in Gaza City and one of the most important and oldest national library and archives centers in Palestine. Much of the collection dates to the Ottoman era, with the oldest manuscript—a Sufi text—dating to the 14th century. The manuscripts include Qur’an and Quranic texts, works of philosophy, theology, poetry, Sufism, Islamic jurisprudence, Arabic language, education, medicine, astronomy, history, and geography. The jurisprudence manuscripts, in particular, demonstrate a deep relationship between Gaza’s jurists and other jurists from the famed Islamic cities of Cairo, Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Jaffa, Damascus, and Aleppo. The collection is vulnerable and at risk due to the impact of conflicts, air strikes, and environmental conditions. The project helps protect these manuscripts through digitization, stabilization, and archival storage. Library staff, trained by HMML specialists, have gained skills in conducting manuscript inventories, digitization, proper handling, and storage. Like all collections, this library and its manuscripts are of extreme importance to its community and contain broader cultural heritage value for Palestine and the Middle East.

Gaza Stories