Iraqi Jesuit saved 1,000 manuscripts

February 03, 2016

An Iraqi Jesuit estimates that he saved 1,000 ancient manuscripts, including biblical and liturgical books, from the advance of the Islamic State.

“If Daesh burns down a church we can rebuild it, but the manuscripts are our history,” Father Gabriel Tooma told an international news channel. “If they get destroyed, then we are lost, and our culture will be forgotten.”

He now operates an orphanage and a school in Alqosh, a Christian town in northern Iraq where Aramaic is still spoken.

“Alqosh is the last place in the area where we can live our faith in peace,” he said.

 

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Further information:

• On the Run from the Islamic State, Iraqi Christians Are Trying to Save Their Heritage (Vice News)