26 Apr 2017

Saving ancient religious manuscripts from destruction

From Afternoons, 3:10 pm on 26 April 2017

ISIS has an unlikely nemesis who is trying to cut off the massive amounts of money the terrorist group makes from looting and selling antiquities. Benedictine Monk, Father Columba Stewart has spent the last 13 years saving Christian and Islamic manuscripts from destruction. He teaches locals in Syria and Iraq to look for ancient books and then preserves the manuscripts digitally.

So far he has saved 50-million handwritten pages of precious material.

Catechism from the Mar Behnam Monastery near Mosul, Iraq, 1771

HMML Executive Director Father Columba stands in front of boxes used to safely transport the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts from Timbuktu.

“Healing of hearts.” A treatise on spiritual topics. Part of the Timbuktu manuscript collection. Arabic, possibly 19th century

HMML established The Malta Study Center in 1973, with the primary mission of preserving and making accessible the written culture of Malta and the history of Malta

The Malta Study Center

The Resurrection.” Choral Book of Bishop Martin Royas, 16th-Century Manuscript from the Cathedral Museum in Mdina, Malta. HMML Project Number WGM 00001_76r

HMML Executive Director Father Columba Stewart and HMML Field Director Walid Mourad examine manuscripts in Syria. HMML worked in Syria from 2004 until early 2012.

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Saving ancient religious manuscripts from destruction

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