It seems clear that commercial libraries in our time and our current lives, which are dominated by digital culture, Internet devices and computer screens, no longer play the strong and influential role that they played in the lives of previous generations as a source of culture and information or even as aids for reading and knowledge enthusiasts and lovers of self-improvement and reason. With this retreat, the immortal saying, “The dearest place in the world is a swimming saddle… and the best companion in time is a book” by the sheikh of Arab poets, Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, is slowly being forgotten.
Talking about the history of the emergence of commercial libraries in the Arab Gulf region, and researching the biographies of personalities who took advantage of the process of establishing them and risked their money in order to provide them with the latest, best and most useful books and publications in various fields of knowledge, and then bravely resisted the changes of time in order to maintain their continuity, is a passionate conversation. It derives its importance from the fact that libraries (whether public, private, or commercial) have a relationship with civilization and progress, in the sense that the decay of libraries means the decay of civilizations, and the prosperity of the first means the rise of the second.
We will not talk here about public libraries in the Gulf, because they have an independent history, not to mention that their emergence was thanks to official bodies or as a result of collective civil efforts. Therefore, our discussion will be limited to commercial libraries, that is, those that specialize in buying and selling books as merchandise.
Available sources say that the first commercial bookstore in the Gulf appeared in the Bahraini city of Muharraq in a store near its commercial market, at the hands of its owner, the educator Sheikh Abdulaziz Issa Al-Jamea, in the early twentieth century, or before 1907, according to what was written by the Bahraini researcher Bashar Al-Hadi, who wrote He also told us that Al-Jami started his work by selling manuscripts and the few books available in Bahrain, due to the difficulty of importing literature at that time from its printing houses in Bombay, Baghdad, Basra, Cairo and the Hijaz. Thus, Al-Hadi contradicted what others wrote, that the first commercial bookstore in Bahrain was the one founded in Manama by Muhammad Ali Al-Tajer under the name “Bahrain Library” in 1921, and that the second bookstore was the “Kamaliyya Library” in Manama, after its owner Salman Ahmed Kamal in 1921. And that the third library appeared under the name “The National Library” in Muharraq in 1929 by its owner, Ibrahim Muhammad Obaid. After that, similar commercial bookstores appeared in other Gulf cities. The “Al-Ruwaih Library” appeared in Kuwait in 1920, the “Hassan Mahmoud Al-Shanqeeti Library” in Riyadh in 1937, the “Al-Thaqafa Library” in Mecca and Jeddah in the forties AD, the “Literary Library” in Al-Khobar and Dammam in the years 1946 and 1948, respectively, and the “Library of Saleh Al Gurg” in Dubai in the first half of the forties, and “Al Orouba Library” in Doha in 1957.
Kuwait is the second in the Gulf countries in terms of establishing commercial libraries, as its first commercial library is represented by the “National Library” (it was also known to the public as the “Al-Ruwaih Library”) that appeared in 1920 at the hands of Haj Muhammad Ahmad Al-Ruwaih, but at that time it was a library. A small shop containing only a few books, and it remained so until 1928, when its owner moved it to a wider place and provided it with various books on various knowledge, in addition to newspapers and magazines printed abroad, and for this reason some historians of Kuwait consider the year 1928 to be the real date for the establishment of the first library Commercial in Kuwait, while others believe that the actual date is 1923, and others claim that there were libraries that preceded Al-Ruwaih Library, such as the “Shield Library” of its owner Abdul Mohsen Al-Dara’, and the “Students Library” of its owner Abdul Rahman Al-Kharji.
Kuwaiti commercial libraries
The truth is that there are many jurisprudences in this regard with a conflict in the dates of the emergence of the first Kuwaiti commercial libraries and a discrepancy in their sizes, the quality of their books and the period of their work. disputed.
Muhammad Ahmad Al-Ruwaih was born in the eastern neighborhood of Al-Dabbous district near Fareej Al-Zahamil in the State of Kuwait in the year 1898 (and it was said in 1900 or 1901) the son of a family belonging to the Al-Baqoum tribe, which had immigrated to Kuwait in the past from Turbah, located in the Hail region in the north of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the age of six, he joined Ahmed Al-Farsi School, where he learned reading, writing, arithmetic, and memorizing the Qur’an. Despite his passion for science and his fondness for completing his education, his father took him out of schools to help him in his grocery store in front of the Old Market Mosque. The boy, Muhammad al-Ruwaih, used to work in his father’s grocery store from morning until evening, then he would go to work in his father’s council as a server for tea and coffee, and as soon as he finished the last work, he would flee to his uncle’s nearby diwaniya, where men would gather to exchange news and hear poetry, stories and entertaining stories.
According to what Al-Ruwaih mentioned personally to the historian Saif Marzouq Al-Shamlan, in a televised interview on 4/16/1988, his story with books began when he was thirteen years old, when he heard from one of the pioneers of his uncle’s diwaniya the story of “Antarah bin Shaddad,” which he liked. The story, so he expressed to the narrator his desire to acquire the book that includes the story, so he directed him to another book that suits his age, entitled “The Judge and the Thief.” Thus, the boy kept looking for that book to no avail, due to the lack of bookstores in Kuwait at the time, until one day he passed through his father’s grocery store, an Adeni street vendor named Qasim Al-Yamani, also known as Al-Darwish, and the man was coming from Iraq on his way to Bahrain to buy and sell books. Al-Ruwaih asked him for the story of “The Judge and the Thief,” and he promised to bring it to him from Bahrain on his way back to Iraq.
Our friend got the required story, after he paid eight annas (half a rupee) for it, and he read it voraciously, then began to read it to the neighbors and acquaintances, and among them was one of the financially affluent children, who offered to buy the story from him. Fathia Hussein Al-Haddad wrote in Al-Qabas newspaper (8/25/2021) about this incident, which constituted the first important turning point in Al-Ruwaih’s life, indicating that our friend invested the experience he gained from his work in his father’s grocery store, so he sold the book to a friend for Rs. A profit of half a rupee, and that was his first step that he would repeat, and his beginning towards the world of book trade, which led him to independence from his father and gradually start his own project.
In his aforementioned televised interview with Al-Shamlan, Al-Ruwaih told us about what happened after that, and its summary is that his brother-in-law, Abdullah Al-Hunyan, the muezzin of Al-Anjari Mosque and an employee at the British Delegation, told him that there was a library in Bombay called “My pleasure library”, which could provide him with Arabic books at low prices, which encouraged him to Addressing the Indian library through a letter he wrote hastily in broken language, in which he said, “I want to buy books from you.” The first batch of books reached him by mail for 40 rupees.
He tried to sell books through his father’s grocery store, but the latter was disturbed by the hesitation of students and reading enthusiasts about his son and their discussions and clamor, which made the father choose between two things: continuing to work with him without selling books or selling books in a separate store, saying to him, “Oh, my two pomegranates.” With the hand, what happens.”
Al-Ruwaih chose the second thing, and he initially displayed his books on the floor at the entrance to the internal market in the direction of the Grand Mosque, and at the same time he showed the books to the educator Sheikh Abdul Wahhab Al-Asfour and the students of his school. India in the amount of 400 rupees that he did not own at the time, which made him borrow the amount from his father’s friend, the merchant Muhammad bin Haidar, who not only helped him, but also rented a place for him at the entrance to the old market for two rupees (150 fils), to be the headquarters of his first library, and then rented a place for him Another in Caesarea El-Awadi for four rupees a month.
After a while, the father discovered that he had made a mistake against his son, and that he was in dire need of him, so he sent someone to please him and ask him to move his library to a place adjacent to his grocery store in the internal market so that he could use it when needed.
Establishment of the "Muthanna Library"
In his new headquarters, he got acquainted with his neighbor, Muhammad al-Sari'i, who used to travel frequently to Baghdad. With this, Al-Ruwaih decided to stop requesting books from India, starting in 1929, and he also stopped requesting books from the Kamalia Library in Manama, which he had known through Qasim Al-Yamani and dealt with for some time, and instead started asking for his needs from the “Arab Library” in Baghdad. It belonged to its owner, Hajj Noman Al-Adhami, who was associated with a close friendship with him, and encouraged him every time to double his requests for books, assuring him that he would not demand their value until after selling them. Rather, Al-Azami suggested that he provide him with everything he wanted by mail in order to relieve him of the trouble of travel.
Through the library of Al-Hajj Al-Azami, Al-Ruwaih became acquainted with the young, self-made library employee, “Qasim bin Rajab,” who later left work for Al-Azami, and established himself the “Al-Muthanna Library.” He traveled on extensive trips to America to sell books published in Europe, and returned with books issued in America. to sell in Europe. The two men had a close working relationship, which resulted in Al-Ruwaih lending Bin Rajab sums of money to be paid within a year or in exchange for books for his library in Kuwait.
Al-Ruwaih was not satisfied with traveling to Baghdad, but he also traveled to Basra with Abdullah Al-Ghaith in water-bringing ships, where Al-Faw disembarked, and from there he took the car to Basra, and in Basra he took a photograph for the first time in his life in 1931, in order to send it for publication in the “Al-Lataif Al-Masryiya” magazine. At her request, the magazine published it in one of its issues in 1933, with an introduction to him as the owner of the bookstore and distributor of the magazine in Kuwait. In Baghdad, he not only dealt with Al-Azami and Ibn Rajab, but also dealt with the “Al-Saymar Library”, which he knew by chance through “Mahmoud Al-Hafiz”, who is one of the sons of Bandar Lengeh Al-Nujaba and the smart students of knowledge, as Al-Ruwaih got acquainted with him when he was passing through Kuwait on his way to Iraq and Bahrain, and he asked him about the books he had, so he knew that among them was the book “Jawahir al-Adab” by al-Hashemi, and the book “Mercy in Medicine and Wisdom” by al-Suyuti, and that their source was the Iraqi “Al-Simer Library”, so he decided to go to it to deal with it. Other countries he visited later for book trade were Egypt and India.
Relics of Al-Ruwaih Library
And in the records that Al-Ruwaih left behind him, after his death, may God have mercy on him, on the tenth of March 1996, what confirms all this. For example, a person such as Abdul Wahhab Al-Jassar (Director of Kuwait Customs from 1938 to 1953), who learned English in Karachi during the time of British India and was fond of reading novels, used to take from the Al-Ruwaih library every week about 15 novels, in the capacity of rent, read them and then return them to exchange them for another. According to those records, we find that famous writers, poets, educators, judges, and statesmen in Kuwait, such as (Sheikh Ahmed Attia Al-Athari, Abdullah Khalaf Al-Dahyan, Abdulaziz Hamada, Sheikhan Al-Farsi, Abdul Rahman Salem Al-Ateeqi, the artist Saud Al-Rashed, Abdulaziz Al-Rashed, Jacob Al-Ghunaim, Muhammad Al-Ghanim, Ahmed Al-Bishr Al-Roumi, Fahd Al-Askar, Saqr Al-Shabib, and Fahd Buresli), In addition to its sheikhs and rulers, such as the sheikhs (Abdullah Al-Salem, Sabah Al-Salem, Fahd Al-Salem, Jaber Al-Ahmad, Sabah Al-Ahmad, and Jaber Al-Ali), they were among the frequenters of the library to supply Egyptian and Lebanese books and magazines. Rather, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad – according to what Al-Ruwaih's grandson, "Abdul Hamid Fahd Muhammad Ahmad Al-Ruwaih" mentioned in Al-Rai newspaper (6/28/2008) – ordered the Amiri Diwan to pay the rent for the library after the death of its owner, and His Highness was keen to keep it open in its place as it is owned For all Kuwaitis, not just for the Al-Ruwaih family, and Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad followed him in that.
Finally, the Kuwaiti journalist Mamdouh Muhsin Al-Anazi wrote in his book “Kuwaiti Manarat” (1st edition, 2011, p. 241) what says that Al-Ruwaih married six women, of whom he had 15 males and 14 females, and that despite his early love for reading and his long association with books, he He did not write a single book, but he memorized thousands of verses of poetry and had the ability to remember events, places and dates, which made it easier for him to manage the contents of his library, buying and selling, lending and organizing without relying on the other.
He ran Muthanna himself
The library developed and became one of the landmarks of Kuwait, especially after it entered the field of selling stationery and stationery, which made it a center of attraction for students, teachers, and amateurs of writing, calligraphy, and drawing. “Saah”, “Al-Kawakeb”, “Rose Al-Youssef”, “Eve”, “Al-Hilal”, “Al-Fan”, “Al-Ahram” and “Al-Jumhuriya” and others that began to arrive regularly by mail, before the “Farajallah Transport Company” took over the delivery process. Al-Barri »through Lebanon and Iraq. It has also turned into a destination for all Kuwaiti and Arab expatriate readers, especially after it allowed them to rent books to read and return them within a certain period.
Throughout the period from the establishment of the library until the fifties of the twentieth century, its owner managed it himself, then he used the services of his son Fahd when he sensed in him the love of reading and interest in the book, so that they continued working together until the year 1985, in which the father left the responsibility to the son because of his advanced age, so the son Fahd continued the journey. Rather, the latter was keen with his sons to preserve all the library's holdings during the Iraqi invasion in 1990 by moving them to the basement of his house.
Written by: Dr. Abdullah Al-Madani abu_taymour@