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.

- Exterior: >> View Movie << (2019-07-02)
- Interior: >> View Movie << (2019-07-02)