Al-Aqsa Library


The al-Aqsa Library, also known as the al-Aqsa Mosque Library, is the assemblage of books in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.

Locations

The library has two components:
  • The main library: west of al-Aqsa Mosque.
  • The al-Khutniyya Library: south of al-Aqsa Mosque.
Both locations are only accessible from within the compound.

Main library

The main al-Aqsa library is a general library.
It is in a building immediately west of al-Aqsa Mosque, inside the compound's south wall. This structure went by many names:
  • the "White Mosque" and because of its stones' color.
  • the "Women’s Mosque", and "women's hall" because of its former use by women.
  • the "Templars' Armory", because of its use before as a hall or monastic quarters or refectory or armory by the Templars, who might have it constructed in the 1160s. After 1193, a mihrab was installed in the south wall.
  • the "mosque of Abu Bekr" : possibly a misnomer by 19th-century Europeans.
Its entrance faces the courtyard with the Dome of Yusuf Agha. To its west is the southern section of the Islamic Museum and the al-Fakhariyya Minaret.
In 1922, the Supreme Muslim Council established the .
In 1923, books dispersed throughout the compound were gathered in the an-Naḥawiyya Dome.
After inactivity from 1948 to 1976, the library was revived in 1977; books were moved from the Islamic Museum to the Ashrafiyya Madrasa, and then in 2000 to the Women's Mosque.

Al-Khutniyya Library

The al-Khutniyya Library is a manuscript library. It shares its name with a former zawiya and madrasa, which was named after a scholar, Sheikh al-Khutnī/al-Khatanī.
It is inside Old al-Aqsa in the remains of the Fatimid-era fortification tower on top of the now-sealed Double Gate.
The library is in a attached to the compound's south wall, at.
Its access is via a tunnel under the al-Aqsa Mosque. The tunnel's only entryway/exit is before the mosque's portico, facing north.
This library began in 1998 as the initiative of a mosque volunteer, Marwan Nashashibi, and his wife, Um Adnan.
Its collection has texts on jurisprudence, hadiths, hagiography, Sufism and other topics.

Services

Its director is often also the director of the Islamic Museum.
It has about 20,000 books, notably on Islamic archaeology. Books are mostly in Arabic and English, with some in French.
It has about 2,000 titles of Arabic manuscripts, from the 5th century to the Ottoman period. Only researchers have access to the manuscripts.
It also has a large number of Palestinian newspapers and magazines, many dating to the early 20th century.
It has a department dedicated to children and youths in the [|main library].