The
Lebanese National Library Historical overview
Hamidi Sanayeh and trading office Sanayeh building
1919:
Viscount Philip de Tarrazi (1865-1956) established
a library in his own residence with his own personal
collection.
1921: The National Library was called then the "Great
Library of Beirut".
1924: The law on legal deposit was issued by General
Weygand.
1937: The Lebanese National Library (LNL) was relocated
with its 32 thousand documents to the new premises
in the Parliament building at Place de l'Etoile in
Beirut and remained there until the beginning of the
war in 1975.
1940-1975: The golden age of the Lebanese National
Library the Library's collections comprised approximately
200,000 printed documents and manuscripts, in addition
to an important archive collection. A hall was entirely
devoted to precious collections and valuable manuscripts,
including the Shah Nameh Al Ferdowsi as well as oil
paintings representing the pillars of the Renaissance
from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
1975: The Library was severely damaged due to the
civil war outbreak.
1979: The Library's activities were suspended.
2002: The Lebanese National Library Foundation which
was established in 2000 carried out the disinfection
of book collections put in boxes at the Lebanese University
in Hadath under the supervision of the International
Center for Book Conservation of Arles (France) and
with the support of the principality of Monaco. The
collections were transferred to a temporary location
in the duty Free Zone of the Port of Beirut where
the cost of investment and the insurance of its holdings
are covered by the Foundation.
2003-2006: The project of rehabilitation of the National
Library was launched.
2005: The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa
Al Thani, donated $25 million for the restoration
of the Sanayeh old premises and the construction of
new spaces needed to house the National Library.
2007: The Revival project of the national Library
was launched.
2008: The promulgation of Law No 36 by virtue of which
the National Library became an independent public
institution.
2011-2014: The completion of the first stage of the
restoration project and the building's expansion.
2016: The decree of the Library's organization was
issued.
November December 2017: The premises of the LNL
in Sanayeh were assigned to the minister of Culture,
Dr. Ghattas Khoury and the Library's collections and
holdings were transferred and organized.
4 December 2018: The inauguration of the Lebanese
National Library.
Historian,
Dr. Hassan Hallak Beirut Arab University
Sultan
Abdul-Hamid the Second's mandate (1876-1909) witnessed
establishing lots of Schools, hospitals, Serails,
mosques and Churches. Due to the importance of teaching
Beirut Young men workmanships and crafts, on scientific
bases, further to teaching them accounting and Management,
Sultan Abdul-Hamid the Second issued an Mangement,
Sultan Abdul-Hamid the Second issued an imperial decree,
including the building of a School, in Al-Ramel Locality
(Sanayeh, Later on), outside the place frame of disadvantaged
Beirut during that time of History. The mission was
assigned to Beirut Wali, Khalil Pasha, in order to
carry out such task, between 1904 and 1907. It was
also resolved to build a hospital, and a mosque together
with the School of workmanship / Sanayeh.
Indeed,
and during few years numerous buildings were built,
under a red tiles umbrella, while good hearted donor
people assumed the charges, including the plots granted
by some of Beirut families. The construction expenses
amounted some (35) thirty five thousand Golden Ottoman
pounds. The project was built over a surface of approximately
two hundred square units of longitudinal measuring
(arm), in order to welcome six hundred pupils. 35,
843 arms were cut of said area for Al-Sanayeh Park
that was inaugurated in 1907, when Beirut Wali Khalil
Pasha and his Companions of scientists, and influent
people planted a small tree of Willow, as a signal
of the Park lnauguration.
It
is worth and important to underline that the School
of Sanayeh, and for long years, starting from the
ottoman epoch to the French Mandate, to the independence
era, could graduate hundreds of Lebanese citizens,
namely from Beirut, thus in all fields of industry,
bookkeeping, managerial rules, accounting and Mechanics.
It
is necessary to underline that the Hamidi School of
Sanayeh and Trading, turned, after closing it, to
the head office ot the Faculty of Law and Political
Sciences, thus for long years, lasting till the end
of the Lebanese civil war, in 1989. Afterwards, the
faculty head office was relocated in Rafic Hariry
City, in Hadath region, while being substituted and
replaced by the "National Library". The
neighboring buildings were used during the eighties
of the twentieth century, as the head office of the
Council of Ministers Presidency, during the term mandate
of PM Shafic WAZZAN, mainly that numerous aisles of
the Great Serail were destroyed, notwithstanding that
its region was the field of war battles.
The
buildings of the Hamidi Sanayeh and Trading Office
have deemed a chef-d'oeuvre in architecture, including
both the internal and external sides. "Ramel
Region" or Rammal quarter-turned, during the
Ottoman Epoch, and with time passing to "Al-Sanayeh"
Neighborhood.
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Exterior: >> View
Movie << (2019-07-02) - Interior: >> View
Movie << (2019-07-02)