Creating a Catalogue of Printed Heritage in Faizabad Public Library
The project, ‘Creating a Catalogue of Printed Heritage in Faizabad Public Library’, is supported by the Modern Endangered Archives Program at the UCLA Library with funding from Arcadia, a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge.
The archive located in Faizabad’s Public Library in Badakhshan houses a limited and unique collection of printed periodicals in Dari-Farsi, Pashto, and Turki languages from all over Afghanistan, dating from 1946 to present. Through a Planning Grant of 15.000 USD from MEAP, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and the local archives will work together to survey this archive, preparing it for preservation/digitisation and gaining closer insight into the political, socio-cultural and environmental situation of Badakhshan in the 20th Century, a time defined by conflict and internal shifting powers, growing border militarization and the subsequent severed connections of countless cross-border communities. Among the tens of periodicals, there is a complete set of the local newspaper ‘Badakhshān’ in Dari/Pashto (1946-present). There is also a series of almanacs (‘Da Kābul Kālanai’) in Pashto (1946-1966) which provide weather and agricultural reports. The fashion magazines ‘Herāt’ in Dari (1966-1982) highlight the everyday situation of women. Many of the printed materials have been destroyed in other areas and this archive houses the only surviving copies, covering a key period in Afghanistan’s history. Following decades of conflict, in which many libraries and archives were intentionally destroyed, and the Taliban’s seizure of power in August 2021, Faizabad is still strongly affected by political and economic instability due in part to international sanctions placed on the new government. Additionally, due to the poor storage conditions and lack of appropriate training, the materials are under threat of deterioration which could also be hastened by earthquakes and flooding which regularly occur in this area. The materials offer otherwise lost information relating to key historical events in relation to Badakhshan for researchers, students at the Badakhshan University, and local teachers, including the aftermath of WWII, the Communist regime, and the rise of the Taliban.
Contact:
- Fiona Katherine Smith: fiona.katherine.smith@hu-berlin.de
Team:
- Principal Investigator: Manja Stephan-Emmrich
- Project Supervisor: Fiona Katherine Smith, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Project Co-Supervisor, Consultant Historian: Chorshanbe Goibnazarov, University of Central Asia
- Project Coordinator: Omer Abrar, Faizabad Public Library
- Archivist: Osman Ibrahimi, Faizabad Public Library
- Consultant Linguist: Lutz Rzehak, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
