first the antiquities, then the books

[pynchonoid]

<http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=397350>

Robert Fisk: Library books, letters and priceless
documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the
sacking of Baghdad

15 April 2003

So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the
looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter
in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and
Archives - a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical
documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq -
were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then
the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious
Endowment was set ablaze. [...] And the Americans did
nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters
of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for
ammunition for troops, reports on the theft of camels
and attacks on pilgrims, all in delicate hand-written
Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last
Baghdad vestiges of Iraq's written history. But for
Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the
antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday
and the burning of the National Archives and then the
Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is
being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what
insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed? [...]
For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural
capital of the Arab world, the most literate
population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan's grandson
burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was
said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of
books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of
ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq. Why? 




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