page_title: Khalidi Library
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Khalidi Library / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Costumes and characters, etc. Mohammedan [i.e., Muslim] sheikhs and effendies in front of Bibboth Khaldieh [i.e., Khalidiyah Library], Jerusalem Abstract/medium: G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection Physical description: 1 negative&#160;:
context_page_description: Khalidi Library is a library and archive located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was established in 1900, under Ottoman rule.
context_section_description: The Khalidi family's long-time prosperity and prominence in Ottoman and Arab society enabled them to collect and preserve one of the finest private libraries in Palestine. Each generation of Khalidis made contributions to the collection. Sun Allah al-Khalidi, Chief Secretary to the Religious Court of Jerusalem until his death in 1726, was responsible for securing the foundation of the early collection. Shortly before his death, Sun Allah al-Khalidi set up a waqf, bequeathing revenue from his substantial land holdings across Jerusalem to pay for the trusteeship of eighty-five manuscripts in perpetuity. According to Lawrence Conrad, a British historian who catalogued many of the Khalidi's treasures, the Khalidi patriarchs actively built their manuscript collection by bargaining in the medieval literary markets of Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul.
  The establishment of the Khalidi Library as a public institution was made possible by a vast sum bequeathed to Hajj Raghib al-Khalidi (1866-1952) by his grandmother, daughter of the kazasker of Anatolia.  According to historian Lawrence Conrad, the Khalidi family saw themselves as upholding the inherited tradition of the Greeks and Abbasids in founding a library to spread their wealth of knowledge. The announcement of the public opening of the library emphasized this connection between libraries, cultural progress and prosperity by invoking great libraries of the Hellenic and medieval Arab Mediterranean worlds. The year of the Khalidi's public opening is often cited as 1900, however in a recent study, Conrad suggested that the library may have opened a few years earlier.
  The library was among the first non-Western buildings in Palestine to have an exterior sign with text; its original sign announced its name in both French and Arabic as well as: "within are precious books."
  The library was private in that it was formed, funded and managed by the Khalidi family; however, it was open to the public. The introductory statement in the library's first published catalogue emphasized the library's openness to "any person desiring to read." Books were not allowed to circulate outside of the building. The Khalidi Library operated in this fashion for over half a century, surviving the turbulance of 1947-1948, during which the contents of many of Jerusalem's Palestinian libraries, both public and private, were transferred to the National Library of Israel.
  Shortly after the Six-Day War and the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the Khalidi Library was closed to the public. The neighboring building, also owned by Khalidi family, was occupied by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and later turned into a yeshiva. The library itself was saved from similar confiscation after a lengthy legal battle. According to Haifa Khalidi, a mutawilla or guardian of the Library, Shlomo Goren, during his time serving as Chief Rabbi of the Military Rabbinate of the IDF, attempted to purchase the property, but was rebuffed by the Khalidi family.
  Beginning in 1987, the Dutch government figured prominently in securing the future of the Khalidi Library, providing funding for manuscript conservation and renovation of the library building. Conservation work on the library's 12,000 manuscripts was carried out by Tony Bish of the Wellcome Trust. Shortly after beginning conservation work at the Khalidi Library, a separate trove of 29,000 fragments, sections and folios of manuscripts were discovered in the loft of the library. Renovation and refitting of the library building took place over two periods, 1991–1994 and 1995–1997, and consisted of restoring the Mamluk-era building, building an annex to house Khalidi family archival documents, and installing modern shelving units and furniture.
  The Khalidi Library is financially supported by a combination of grants, family contributions, and private donations. Since 1989, the Friends of the Khalidi Library (FKL), a non-profit organization registered in Massachusetts, has acted as a conduit for this support. The FKL's current chair of the board of trustees is Professor W
caption: Khalidi Library, from the opening ca. 1900. From right: Hajj Raghib Al-Khalidi, Sheikh Taher al Jaza’ireh  (from Damascus),  Sheikh Musa Shafiq Al-Khalidi, Sheikh Khalil Al-Khalidi, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Habbal (from Beirut)[7]
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