After years of restoration, the ninth-century Qarawiyyin library in north-eastern Morocco is finally set to reopen – with strict security and a new underground canal system to protect its most prized manuscripts 
 
 World's oldest library reopens in Fez: 'You can hurt us, but you can't hurt the books' 
 
 World's oldest library reopens in Fez: 'You can hurt us, but you can't hurt the books' 
 
 The caretaker stares at the wrought iron door and its four ancient locks with a gleam in his eyes. Outside, the Moroccan sun shines down upon the ornate coloured tiles of Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin, located in the old medina of Fez. This, it is widely believed, is the oldest library in the world – and soon it will be open to the general public again. 
 
 
 
 “It was like healing wounds,” says Aziza Chaouni, a Fez native and the architect tasked with restoring the great library. 
 
 The iron door is found along a corridor that once linked the library with the neighbouring Qarawiyyin Mosque – the two centres of learning and cultural life in old Fez. Inside it were kept the most prized tomes in the collection; works of such immense import that each of the four locks had separate keys held with four different individuals, all of whom had to be present for the door to be opened. 
 
 
 
 The restored library boasts a new sewerage and underground canal system to drain away the moisture that had threatened to destroy many of its prized manuscripts – plus an elaborate lab to treat, preserve and digitise the oldest texts. The collection of advanced machinery includes digital scanners that identify minuscule holes in the ancient paper rolls, and a preservative machine which treats the manuscripts with a liquid that moistens them enough to prevent cracking. 
 
 A special room with strict security and temperature and humidity controls houses the most ancient works. The most precious is a ninth-century copy of the Qur’an, written in ornate Kufic script on camel skin. 
 
 
 
 The must of old books permeates the reading room, and the copies feel fragile and dusty, wearied by years of disuse. Some are wrapped up to prevent them disintegrating in your hands. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest View from the roof of the library, Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin, which was founded in 859. Photograph: Kareem Shaheen 
 
 “The people who work here jealously guard the books,” says one of the caretakers. “You can hurt us, but you cannot hurt the books.” 
 
 The library’s restoration comes at a time when extremists are rampaging the region’s heritage. Across Syria and Iraq, the militants of the Islamic State have carried out cultural atrocities that include ransacking the great library of Mosul, burning thousands of manuscripts, bulldozing ancient Assyrian cities like Nimrud and Hatra in Iraq, blowing up the Temple of Bel in Palmyra and sacking the oasis city’s museum, in addition to destroying tombs and mausoleums of Shia and Christian saints. 
 
 
 
 Those troubles seem a world away in Morocco, which managed to remain unscathed by the tumult that has gripped the region and brought down venerable nation states. The king introduced reforms that placated enough of the middle class without devolving too much power to the Islamist-dominated parliament, and peace was largely restored after a series of protests in early 2011. 
 
 In 2012, the ministry of culture, which manages the Qarawiyyin library and university, asked Chaouni to assess the library, and she was pleasantly surprised when her architecture firm was awarded the contract, in a field traditionally seen as a man’s province. 
 
 The Qarawiyyin library was also founded by a woman. In the ninth century, Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Tunisia’s Kairouan, arrived in Fez and began laying the groundwork for a complex that would include the library, the Qarawiyyin Mosque, and Qarawiyyin University, the oldest higher education institution in the world – with alumni including the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, the great Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun, and the Andalusian diplomat Leo Africanus. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ornate tile work in Fez, Morocco’s cultural capital. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian 
 
 From the library’s roof, the old city of Fez stretches out into the distance; its narrow streets crowded with life. Residents are animated despite fasting in the beating heat of Ramadan, shoppers haggle for leather goods crafted in the ancient tannery, and blacksmiths and copper artisans sweat in the shade of their workshops. Through the winding alleys the odour of treated leather mixes with the call to prayer. It is as though time has stood still. 
 
 Craftsmen say it is harder to make a living these days, with the prices of raw materials rising and the lure of cheap, mass-produced wares drawing away customers; but still they toil day after day, far from the lush boulevards of the more modern downtown Fez. 
 
 I hope that the people from Fez will use the space like a second home Aziza Chaouni 
 
 The restoration of the library fits into this pattern – Aziza Chaouni recalls stories of how her great-grandfather travelled on a mule from his ancestral village in Morocco to study at Qarawiyyin University in the 19th century. 
 
 “One of his homes was the library,” she says. “It has this magical aura.” 
 
 Growing up in Fez, Chaouni would often visit her great-uncle’s workshop at the coppersmiths’ quarter just a stone’s throw away from the library, and would be confronted by its immense closed door at the entrance, and wonder what lay beyond. Once she was in charge of restoring it, she wanted to do more than just fix the broken tiles. 
 
 “It has to continue to live,” she says. “I hope it will open soon, and the public will come and enjoy seeing the manuscripts for the first time. But I also hope that the people from Fez will use the space like a second home. The library’s value is not simply to preserve it for tourists, but that it is functioning.” 
 
 
 
 Engineers worked to determine the structural integrity of the library, restoring some of the woodwork but all the while trying to preserve as much of it as possible. They were helped by the fact that France had undertaken a significant restoration project in the 1940s with the aim of allowing non-Muslims access to the library. They also installed a new chandelier in the reading room, a high-ceiling hall with polished wooden desks and chairs, and intricate reliefs on its columns. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest In 2012 Canadian-Moroccan architect Aziza Chaouni started work on the restoration project. Photograph: Kareem Shaheen 
 
 The library is expected to be reopened for visitors later this year after an initial target of summer 2016, and then September, slipped by. No definite date has been set, but the architects remain confident it will happen before 2017. As a sign of the authorities’ investment in the restoration, King Mohammad VI inspected the work in June, and the monarch is expected to inaugurate the reopening. 
 
 The renovation is at the forefront of the plan to restore Fez to its status as a spiritual and cultural capital, which it was for centuries, until Rabat became the centre of political life when Morocco was still a French protectorate. Many of the city’s thinkers and intellectuals left Fez, condemning it to a future as a provincial city, but fortunately preventing the gentrification of the old medina, which maintains its earthy quality to this day. 
 
 
 
 Now renovations are taking place in other quarters of the city. Sufi and music festivals have also injected with fresh blood, as young people rediscover the medina throughout the year. Plans are being made for an exhibition that would showcase the most prized collections in the library. 
 
 An insider's guide to Fez: Ceramics, courtyards and Macbook decals Read more 
 
 But for Chaouni, the sustainable architecture philosophy also means the library cannot be a relic of ages past, but a breathing part of the city, much like the old medina is still an inhabited living organism. 
 
 
 
 It is a philosophy she takes to heart. Chaouni also drafted a plan to restore the river in Fez, which was once known as the river of jewels, but was gradually drenched in waste from the local tannery and sewage from the surrounding residences, and then partially covered with concrete and trash. The river is slowly coming to life now. 
 
 “I would like my kids to be able to see this heritage,” she says, recalling how in her childhood she could scarcely see inside the walled-off complex. 
 
 “The medina of Fez has the largest pedestrian network, the largest number of historic buildings inside, and I think as a model, as a living city, it’s not just a city for tourists,” she adds. “It is still transforming and adjusting, and as a pedestrian city it’s a great model for sustainability.” 
 
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 Will fin breid, barley-bree an paintit room. Whan MacLean meets wi's friens in Springburn. Aa thae roses an geeans will turn tae blume. An a black laud frae yont Nyanga. Dings the fell gallows o the burghers doun. 
 
 Black an white ane-til-ither mairriet. Mak the vile barracks o thair maisters bare. Sae come aa ye at hame wi freedom. Never heed whit the houdies croak for Doom. In yer hous aa the bairns o Aidam. 
 
 Tak the road an seek ither loanins. Wi thair ill-ploys tae sport an play. Nae mair will our bonnie callants. Merch tae war whan our braggarts crousely craw. Nor wee weans frae pitheid an clachan. Murn the ships sailin doun the Broomielaw. Broken faimilies in launs we've hairriet. Will curse 'Scotlan the Brave' nae mair, nae mair. 
 
 Roch the win i the clear day's dawin. Blaws the clouds heilster-gowdie owre the bay. But thair's mair nor a roch win blawin. Thro the Great Glen o the warl the day. It's a thocht that wad gar our rottans. Aa thae rogues that gang gallus fresh an gay. 
 
 WHAT’S THE STORY? 
 
 DEVOUT and well educated, Fatima al-Fihri was struck by tragedy when she lost her father, husband and brother in quick succession. 
 
 Their deaths left her a rich woman, however, and she vowed to spend her inheritance on a mosque and centre for knowledge that would benefit her community. 
 
 The result was the multi-million pound restoration of Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, the oldest library in the world, which is due to reopen later this year. 
 
 Inside the building, which was founded in 859, are priceless manuscripts including a ninth-century copy of the Koran with its elaborate Kufic script written on camel skin. Other texts date back as far as the seventh century and include the words of some of the most renowned Islamic thinkers but were at risk because of the uncontrolled humidity of the building and its general neglect. 
 
 The library is located in a complex containing the Qarawiyyin Mosque and the Qarawiyyin University, the oldest in the world. Its alumni include the great Muslim economist and historian Ibn Khaldun who studied there in the 14th century, mystic poet and philosopher Ibn Al-‘Arabi who attended in the 12th century, the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides and Andalusian diplomat Leo Africanus, a 16th-century author and traveller. 
 
 The library was of key importance to the students at the university which in turn played a leading role in the exchange of knowledge between Islam and the rest of the world in medieval times. 
 
 
 
 
 
 WHAT IS ITS VALUE? 
 
 
 
 ARCHES, courtyards with fountains and ornate interiors made the library a beautiful place but it was in urgent need of restoration. 
 
 Fittingly, the project was awarded to female architect Aziza Chaouni who grew up in Fez and whose great-grandfather journeyed by mule from rural Morocco to study at the university in the 19th century. 
 
 “One of his homes was the library,” she said. “It has this magical aura.” 
 
 However, although her great-uncle was a coppersmith whose workshop was near the library, Chaouni did not set foot inside the building until asked to restore it in 2012. 
 
 As architecture is traditionally a male preserve in Morocco, she was initially surprised to be asked but has embraced the project with enthusiasm. 
 
 “It has to continue to live,” she said. “I hope it will open soon, and the public will come and enjoy seeing the manuscripts for the first time. But I also hope that the people from Fez will use the space like a second home. The library’s value is not simply to preserve it for tourists, but that it is functioning.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT? 
 
 HER team was faced with an uphill task – quite literally as the library had been expanded at various times with each interconnected structure built on a different part of a steep hill. 
 
 “Throughout the years, the library underwent many rehabilitations, but it still suffered from major structural problems, a lack of insulation, and infrastructural deficiencies like a blocked drainage system, broken tiles, cracked wood beams, exposed electric wires, and so on,” said Chaouni. 
 
 The library was also full of surprises. 
 
 “One of the startling aspects about restoring a building this old is that you never know what’s behind a wall. You could scrape it and find a painting, take out the painting and find a door – and so on. We discovered some unexpected things, especially underground, such as a centuries-old sewage system.” 
 
 The team also had to bring the library up to date with modern technology aimed at preserving the manuscripts that encapsulate centuries of knowledge in subjects from astronomy to theology, grammar and law. 
 
 “I didn’t want the building to become an embalmed cadaver,” said Chaouni. “There has to be a fine balance between keeping the original spaces, addressing the needs of current users, including students, researchers and visitors, and integrating new sustainable technologies – solar panels, water collection for garden irrigation, and so on.” 
 
 The team also took great care in restoring the original courtyard fountains as a nod to the Unesco world heritage status of Fez’s medina. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 WHY IS IT SO VITAL? 
 
 THE project is seen as being of national importance for Morocco and King Mohammed VI is expected to attend the official reopening this autumn. 
 
 According to Abdullah al-Henda, who is part of the restoration team, the library is more than just a building. 
 
 “It was a bridge of knowledge of researchers, between Africa and between the Middle East and Europe,” he said. 
 
 It created a place for Muslims and non-Muslims to exchange ideas and in the 10th century, Pope Sylvester II, a keen scholar, was one of many who sought out the building. 
 
 Around 4,000 manuscripts are contained in the library including an original copy of Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah. 
 
 “We have to preserve the library,” said Henda. “We have to restore it because it’s our identity. It’s our archives. It’s our memory.” 
 
 The library is part of a plan to restore the city as a cultural and spiritual capital, a status it lost as Rabat became the focus of Moroccan political life when the country was a French protectorate. 
 
 Other parts of Fez are being renovated and Chaouni is promoting the clean-up of the river, once called the River of Jewels, which has lost its sparkle due to pollution and dumping. 
 
 “The medina of Fez has the largest pedestrian network, the largest number of historic buildings inside, and I think as a model, as a living city, it’s not just a city for tourists,” she said. “It is still transforming and adjusting, and as a pedestrian city it’s a great model for sustainability.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The university's academics were "startled" when the radiocarbon dating tests showed it was so old 
 
 What may be the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham. 
 
 Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence. 
 
 The pages of the Muslim holy text had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century. 
 
 The British Library's expert on such manuscripts, Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, said this "exciting discovery" would make Muslims "rejoice". 
 
 The manuscript had been kept with a collection of other Middle Eastern books and documents, without being identified as one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the world. 
 
 Image caption The fragments were written on sheep or goat skin 
 
 Oldest texts 
 
 When a PhD researcher, Alba Fedeli, looked more closely at these pages it was decided to carry out a radiocarbon dating test and the results were "startling". 
 
 The university's director of special collections, Susan Worrall, said researchers had not expected "in our wildest dreams" that it would be so old. 
 
 Image caption Prof Thomas says the writer of this manuscript could have heard the Prophet Muhammad preach 
 
 "Finding out we had one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the whole world has been fantastically exciting." 
 
 The tests, carried out by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, showed that the fragments, written on sheep or goat skin, were among the very oldest surviving texts of the Koran. 
 
 These tests provide a range of dates, showing that, with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645. 
 
 "They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam," said David Thomas, the university's professor of Christianity and Islam. 
 
 "According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations that form the Koran, the scripture of Islam, between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death." 
 
 Prof Thomas says the dating of the Birmingham folios would mean it was quite possible that the person who had written them would have been alive at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. 
 
 "The person who actually wrote it could well have known the Prophet Muhammad. He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach. He may have known him personally - and that really is quite a thought to conjure with," he says. 
 
 First-hand witness 
 
 Prof Thomas says that some of the passages of the Koran were written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels - and a final version, collected in book form, was completed in about 650. 
 
 He says that "the parts of the Koran that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad's death". 
 
 "These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Koran read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Susan Worrall says the university wants to put this internationally significant discovery on public display 
 
 The manuscript, written in "Hijazi script", an early form of written Arabic, becomes one of the oldest known fragments of the Koran. 
 
 Because radiocarbon dating creates a range of possible ages, there is a handful of other manuscripts in public and private collections which overlap. So this makes it impossible to say that any is definitively the oldest. 
 
 But the latest possible date of the Birmingham discovery - 645 - would put it among the very oldest. 
 
 'Precious survivor' 
 
 Dr Waley, curator for such manuscripts at the British Library, said "these two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three caliphs". 
 
 The first three caliphs were leaders in the Muslim community between about 632 and 656. 
 
 Dr Waley says that under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, copies of the "definitive edition" were distributed. 
 
 Image caption Muhammad Afzal of Birmingham Central Mosque said he was very moved to see the manuscript 
 
 "The Muslim community was not wealthy enough to stockpile animal skins for decades, and to produce a complete Mushaf, or copy, of the Holy Koran required a great many of them." 
 
 Dr Waley suggests that the manuscript found by Birmingham is a "precious survivor" of a copy from that era or could be even earlier. 
 
 "In any case, this - along with the sheer beauty of the content and the surprisingly clear Hijazi script - is news to rejoice Muslim hearts." 
 
 The manuscript is part of the Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in modern-day Iraq. 
 
 He was sponsored to take collecting trips to the Middle East by Edward Cadbury, who was part of the chocolate-making dynasty. 
 
 The Koran 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 Muslims believe the words of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over 22 years from 610 
 
 It was not until 1734 that a translation was made into English, but was littered with mistakes 
 
 Copies of the holy text were issued to British Indian soldiers fighting in the First World War 
 
 On 6 October 1930, words from the Koran were broadcast on British radio for the first time, in a BBC programme called The Sphinx 
 
 The origins of the Koran 
 
 Discover how the Koran became part of British life 
 
 The local Muslim community has already expressed its delight at the discovery in their city and the university says the manuscript will be put on public display. 
 
 "When I saw these pages I was very moved. There were tears of joy and emotion in my eyes. And I'm sure people from all over the UK will come to Birmingham to have a glimpse of these pages," said Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque. 
 
 The university says the Koran fragments will go on display in the Barber Institute in Birmingham in October. 
 
 Prof Thomas says it will show people in Birmingham that they have a "treasure that is second to none". 
 
 More stories from the BBC's Knowledge economy series looking at education from a global perspective and how to get in touch.
– What is believed to be the world's oldest library is set to reopen to the public in the coming months, and the architect behind its restoration can't wait to share its "magical aura," the Guardian reports. “One of the startling aspects about restoring a building this old is that you never know what’s behind a wall," Aziza Chaouni tells the National. "You could scrape it and find a painting, take out the painting and find a door." One such door at Morocco's Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin library—founded in 859—is made of iron and has four locks, the keys for which were held by four separate people. The ancient library was committed to protecting its most valuable works. That spirit of protection continues on in the restoration of Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin. Chaouni and her team have added underground canals and temperature controls to keep unwanted moisture from the ancient texts, some of which date back to the 600s. They've also added a machine to keep the works just moist enough to prevent cracking. Of the 4,000 or so books the restoration is protecting, the most valuable is a copy of the Koran written on camel skin from the ninth century, Bustle reports. The library is scheduled to reopen by 2017—five years after the restoration project began. Chaouni hopes it will be embraced by the people "like a second home." (Researchers made a "fantastically exciting" Koran discovery at a library last year.)