Friar trains Iraqis to preserve ‘treasures’

BAGHDAD: AS jihadists swept across Iraq three years ago, he rescued a treasure trove of ancient religious manuscripts from near-certain destruction. Father Najeeb Michaeel is now training fellow Iraqis to preserve their heritage.

“My duty is to save our heri Dominican friar told AFP in a telephone interview from his of Iraqi Kurdistan.

“We can’t save a tree if we don’t save its roots, and a man without culture is a dead man.”

In August 2014, as the Islamic State (IS) group charged towards Qaraqosh, once Iraq’s largest Chris with rare manuscripts, 16th century books and irreplaceable records.

He fled towards the relative safety of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

With two other friars from his Dominican order, he also moved the Oriental Manuscript Digitisation Center (OMDC).

Founded in 1990, the center works in partnership with Benedictine monks to preserve and restore documents. It also scans damaged manuscripts recovered from churches and villages across northern Iraq.

In all, some 8,000 Chaldean, Syrian, Armenian and Nestorian manuscripts have been digitally copied.

Today, the OMDC has about 10 employees, “displaced people who have turned into professionals” who host researchers from France, Italy or Canada, the friar said.

‘ Whole heart into it’

The new recruits are all academics who lost their jobs after jihadist takeover.

“They are working for the future and they know it. They put their whole heart into it,” said Father Najeeb, whose team includes Christians and Muslims.

Thousands of religious relics and sites, both Christian and Muslim, were destroyed by IS declared victory against the extremists in December.

- ent teams,” said Father Najeeb, explaining that as Iraqi troops advanced against IS, many trainees returned home, forcing him to take on fresh recruits.

The center now makes several copies of each document to guarantee its preservation. Originals are returned to the owners, one copy is its online digital database.

Until 2007, these documents were kept in the convent of AlSaa church, also known as Our Lady of the Hour, in the city of Mosul, which became the major battleground of Iraq’s war against IS.

The archives contain nearly 850 ancient manuscripts in Aramaic, Arabic and other languages, letters dating back three centuries and some 50,000 books.

Al-Saa church takes its name from its clock, which was a gift from France in 1880, given to the Dominicans in recognition of their social and cultural work.

The Dominican order had opened 25 schools across Mosul and its surrounding province, and — on the backs of camels trekking across the desert — brought Iraq

But attacks against churches in Mosul were on the rise even before IS seized control of the and a bishop had been murdered since 2004.