HMML Global Operations: Iraq
Iraq
-
Region
Middle East -
Country
Iraq -
Cities
Alqūsh, Baghdad, Erbil, Khidr, Kirkuk, Mosul, Qarah Qūsh, and others -
Repositories
Chaldean Archdiocese of Irbīl, Chaldean Archdiocese of Karkūk, Chaldean Catholic Church. Patriarchate of Baghdad, Mar Behnam Monastery, Syrian Catholic Archdiocese of Baghdad, Syrian Catholic Diocese Qaraqosh (Tahira), 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 bombed Mar Behnam monastery 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.
20th-c. Lectionary in Arabic Gashuni, Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese of Mosul destroyed after the fall of Mosul in 2014 (ASOM 339)
Fr. Najeeb Michaeel with manuscript at CNMO
17th/18th-c. Syriac grammar book, Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese of Mosul destroyed after the fall of Mosul in 2014 (ASOM 107)
Ruined manuscripts at CNMO
18th-c. liturgical manuscript in Syriac in the collection of the Dominican Friars of Mosul (DFM 13)
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 from Baghdad to Erbil
Technicians with Fr. Najeeb (center) examining a manuscript at CNMO, Erbil
Columba Stewart at the bombed University of Mosul
Technician paginating a manuscript at CNMO
Examining an Armenian manuscript at CNMO
16th-c. Gospel book in Syriac, Arabic Garshuni, and Arabic, from the Syrian Catholic Archdiocese of Baghdad (ASCBN 52)
