MOSUL, IRAQ · A STORY OF REBUILDING

You can burna book.Not the desireto learn.

A library reduced to ashes. A community determined to return. And a new chapter, written together.

Step inside the story ↓

THE UNIVERSITY OF MOSUL
CENTRAL LIBRARY PROJECT

A woman in a red headscarf reading inside the library

KNOWLEDGE FINDS A WAY BACK.

For everyone who still
has a question.

PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE PROJECT BOOK · P. 47

A COMPLETED IDEAS BEYOND BORDERS PROJECT

The Mosul chapter is complete.
The work of opening minds continues.

This is the story of IBB’s completed library project.
Your donation today supports IBB’s current projects.

Help make the next story possible ↗

01 / WHAT WAS LOSTAND WHAT COULD NOT BE TAKEN

A library holds
more than books.

It holds the next doctor’s education. An engineer’s first idea. A place to ask a difficult question.

Before 2014, the University of Mosul’s Central Library was a respected center of knowledge, science and pluralistic thinking. ISIS set out to destroy it. Over months, more than a million books, rare manuscripts and maps were lost.

But the people who needed that library were still there.

The burned interior of the University of Mosul Central Library — The damage reached far beyond the shelves.From the book, p. 18 · Fareed Abdel Wahed

02 / THE WAY BACKEXPLORE THE CHAPTERS

Rebuilding begins
with people.

No single moment tells the whole story.
Follow the path from loss to learning.

The library building before reconstruction — University of Mosul Media Department · Book p. 26

2014 · THE OCCUPATION

An attack on the freedom to learn.

The library was more than a building. It represented the pursuit of knowledge. Under ISIS occupation, its collections were destroyed in a drawn-out process that left students without the resources their education depended on.

01 / 05

The entrance of the University of Mosul Central Library

A BUILDING CAN BE REBUILT.

A future has to be
believed in.

They returned. They salvaged what they could.
And they began again.

MEET THE PEOPLE WHO DID ↓

BEHIND THE HEADLINESMEMORIES, HOPES & THE PEOPLE WHO HELD ON

Before it was a project,
it was someone’s place.

A quiet afternoon. A family memory. A lifetime of work.
Reporting from Mosul reveals what the library meant to the people who knew it.

Library shelves, accompanying Ameen Al Jaleeli’s recollections

Library photograph from the project book, p. 34. Not a portrait.

REPORTED APRIL 30, 2021 · AL-FANAR MEDIA

The calm he wanted his students to know.

As a student, Ameen Al Jaleeli spent long, peaceful afternoons reading in the university library. Years later, as a professor, he found himself describing that experience to students who had never known it.

They asked what the library had been like, and whether they would see it rebuilt before graduating. What he missed was more than access to books: it was a part of university life he wanted them to have.

Read Olivia Cuthbert’s reporting ↗

This account was reported before the library’s reopening. It describes the hopes of students and staff at that time.

03 / IN THEIR OWN WORDSTHE PEOPLE AT THE HEART OF THE STORY

Your approach is the right one. We are receiving the books we actually need.

Dr. Ghada Abdelkarim

University of Mosul · From the book, p. 31

01 / 03

Faisal Saeed al Mutar, founder of Ideas Beyond Borders and leader of its Mosul library project

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PROJECT

Led by Faisal
Saeed al Mutar.

Founder of Ideas Beyond Borders

Faisal Saeed al Mutar led IBB’s University of Mosul Central Library project, working with the IBB team, university librarians and professors, and the supporters who made the donation possible.

“IBB’s main goal is to create a knowledge movement in Iraq and make information accessible across the Middle East.”

Faisal Saeed al Mutar · Project book, p. 20

The approach began with a simple question: what do the students and faculty actually need? The answer shaped a practical contribution to the university’s recovery.

04 / ASK FIRST. THEN ACT.THE IBB APPROACH

The right book.
In the right hands.

An entire class sharing a single book. Students working from photocopies of textbooks twenty years out of date.

Ideas Beyond Borders began by listening. The central library and the university’s twenty colleges were asked to identify what they needed most. Their priorities shaped the donation.

Choose a resource to see what it made possible ↓

A foundation for learning

Textbooks selected from the university’s own priorities, supporting subjects such as medicine, chemical engineering and philosophy.

The book records the 2021 donation and estimates that 100,000 students would benefit from the textbooks over the following years. These figures describe the project at the time of publication.

ROOM FOR MORE THAN ONE WAY OF THINKING

A shelf full
of possibilities.

The donation also included a special collection of 400 Enlightenment works, with authors including John Stuart Mill, Steven Pinker and Bertrand Russell.

05 / LOOK A LITTLE CLOSERPHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BOOK

Small moments.
A shared future.

Carrying boxes. Unpacking books. Finding a place to read.
This is what rebuilding looks like.

THE STORY BEYOND THESE PAGESINDEPENDENT REPORTING · 2017–2022

A city’s recovery.
Seen by the world.

These reports follow the wider recovery of Mosul’s libraries.
Al-Fanar Media also documents IBB’s contribution.

FEBRUARY 19, 2022 · THE LIBRARY REOPENS

“It is a symbol of new beginning”

Dr Sayf Al Ashqar, university secretary general of libraries
Quoted by Alison Flood in The Guardian, February 25, 2022

The Guardian reported the university library’s reopening on February 19, 2022, following rehabilitation by UNDP with German financial support and book donations from around the world. IBB’s completed donation was one contribution to a much wider recovery.

Read the reopening story ↗

Al-Fanar MediaAPRIL 30, 2021 · OLIVIA CUTHBERT

Bringing Books Back to Mosul University Library

Students’ hopes, a professor’s memories, and IBB’s plan to supply resources chosen by the university.

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The New YorkerJUNE 12, 2017 · ROBIN WRIGHT

Mosul’s Library Without Books

A library director reckons with the destruction, while students organize a festival where admission is a book.

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BBC NewsAPRIL 12, 2017 · NEVEEN YOUSSEF

Rebuilding Mosul’s libraries book by book

Mosul Eye’s appeal brings people together across borders to help restore the city’s libraries.

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A RECOVERY BIGGER THAN ONE PROJECT

The Arab Weekly’s February 10, 2022 report also described librarians protecting rare material, people donating from their own collections, and the persistence of reading across Mosul. Its coverage includes both the university library and the city’s separate public library.

Cover of The University of Mosul Central Library Project

THE STORY, PAGE BY PAGE

Spend some time
inside the book.

The photographs. The testimony. The people who made it happen. Explore the complete 50-page publication that inspired this experience.

House of Wisdom 2.0 Press · An imprint of Ideas Beyond Borders
Published 2022 · ISBN 978-1-7356477-3-9

A COMPLETED PROJECT. A CONTINUING MISSION.

This chapter is written.
Help open the next.

Mosul shows what becomes possible when people invest in the freedom to learn.
Help Ideas Beyond Borders carry that commitment into its current projects.

Support IBB’s current projects ↗The Mosul library project is complete. Donations made through this link support Ideas Beyond Borders’ current work.Explore Ideas Beyond Borders ↗

You can burna book.Not the desireto learn.

A library holdsmore than books.

Rebuilding beginswith people.

An attack on the freedom to learn.

A future has to bebelieved in.

Before it was a project,it was someone’s place.

The calm he wanted his students to know.

Led by FaisalSaeed al Mutar.

The right book.In the right hands.

A shelf fullof possibilities.

Small moments.A shared future.

A city’s recovery.Seen by the world.