The exquisite 19th-century edifice of Al-Kutub Khana at Bab Al-Khalq has been restored to its pristine grandeur after several years of renovations. Nevine El-Aref attended the inaugural ceremony held in the presence of President and Mrs Hosni Mubarak Amongst the Islamic monuments in the busy Cairo district of Bab Al-Khalq stands the Kutub Khana Al-Khedewiya, also known as the Dar Al-Kutub Al-Masriya (Egyptian National Library). For six years this splendid Islamic building has been hidden under ugly iron scaffolding, but now the Dar Al-Kutub -- built in 1904 and the first National Library to have been built in the Arab world -- has been resurrected with its original features so as to continue its cultural role of welcoming visitors and researchers and of preserving the nation's intangible heritage. President and Mrs Hosni Mubarak, along with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, attended last Sunday's reopening. Since Khedive Ismail took the initiative to build Egypt's National Library and Archive, modelled on the national library in Paris, it has been Egypt's treasure house for manuscripts, rare books and ancient Egyptian papyri. Opened in 1870, it reflected the role of culture in enhancing the development of society as a whole. Khedive Ismail offered all manner of support and assistance to his minister of education to fulfill his ambitions. One of modern Egypt's greatest rulers, he supported the international role of Egyptian culture with its cultural and literary outpourings, history, and heritage. Khedive Ismail's Kutub Khana made a large contribution to Arab and Islamic culture. Since its opening, the library has served as a national university and has nurtured and inspired thousands of thinkers and scientists. In 1886 a new law was issued stipulating the deposition of any publications in the library's registers in an attempt to enhance the library with the latest publications. However, in 1898 the palace of Prince Mostafa Fadel which was used as the library premises, became overcrowded with the constant flow of new books and publications, a matter that led the Ministry of Public Works to choose a new plot of land in Bab Al-Khalq for a new library building. In 1899 Khedive Abbas Helmy II laid the foundation stone of the Kutub Khana and devoted its first floor for the Antique Khana, which is now the Museum of Islamic Art. The library was inaugurated 1904, and since then its priceless assets and important collection of books have attracted the attention of scholars and intellectuals in Egypt and abroad. After the 1952 Revolution, Dar Al-Kutub continued to be Egypt's most important library and archive, but it became so overwhelmed with books that in 1971 a new building overlooking the Nile was set up as the new premises for Egypt's National Library. This was left unused for more than 25 years, the building at Bab Al-Khalq falling into disrepair. In the mid-1990s Mrs Suzanne Mubarak took the initiative and declared the necessity of restoring and rehabilitating the building, and Farouk Hosni subsequently discussed various proposals to again put it on the nation's cultural map. Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly that the restoration project aimed not only at restoring the authentic building of Bab Al-Khalq but also at upgrading the1971 library building. The latter will be Egypt's National Library, serving researchers and students in various channels of knowledge and sciences while keeping the Bab Al-Khalq building for manuscripts, rare books, papyri, old maps and periodicals. A museum displaying authentic historical items was also established inside the library in order to show Egypt's contribution to Arab and Islamic culture and mankind in general. Hosni pointed out that to make the best use of the interior space of the library and to meet the needs of the researchers who are likely to frequent the library, the interior design has been adapted and redesigned. Incongruous walls during the former expansion have been removed. Farouk Abdel-Salam, first undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, says that in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology all the books have been technologically documented and that Internet navigators can have free access to them. "The entire building is a remarkable example that integrates the historic architecture with modernity," Dar Al-Kutub director Saber Arab said, adding that the building consisted of one main floor and two mezzanines. The main floor includes of a number of reading rooms and the newly-established Manuscripts Museum, which is three floors high. The first mezzanine has the microfilm and the Internet locations while the second has a research hall, a restoration lab and a hall of papyri. The basement and roof space is also being used. At the opening, , a 20-minute film about the Ministry of Culture's achievements over the past 20 years was screened in the reading hall before Hosni conducted President and Mrs Mubarak on a tour of the library. On display were a number of historical maps of the Nile sources, Sultan's decrees, Ancient Egyptian papyri, gilded copies of the Holy Qur'an, and the first publication of the Egyptian Radio magazine, which is now the Radio and Television magazine. A collection of golden and silver coins dating from the Abbassid era were also on show.
