Poland Helps Save 2,000 Ancient Kurdish Manuscripts

Nearly 2,000 rare manuscripts holding centuries of Kurdish and Iraqi history were at risk of being lost forever, but a new partnership just secured their future.

Poland's development aid program teamed up with Salahaddin University in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, throughout 2025 to create a dedicated digitization unit. The project provided professional scanning equipment to preserve the university's remarkable collection of manuscripts and rare books, some dating back 500 years to the 16th century.

Salahaddin University, the oldest public university in Iraqi Kurdistan, houses these precious documents in its library. But until now, the collection hasn't been properly cataloged, leaving most of it locked away from researchers who could use it to advance understanding of Kurdish literature, history, and politics.

The challenge extended beyond the manuscripts themselves. The university's entire library holds nearly 300,000 items, but without a centralized digital catalog, scholars have struggled to access most of the collection.

Thanks to the Polish Aid program working with the Kurdistan Centre for Arts and Culture, that's about to change. All core digitization equipment arrived and was set up by the end of 2025, positioning the project to launch its active phase in 2026.

The Ripple Effect

This preservation effort reaches far beyond saving old books. When the digitization work begins this year, it will protect irreplaceable cultural heritage from damage, theft, or natural disasters while simultaneously opening it to the world.

Researchers studying contemporary Kurdish history and politics will gain access to primary sources they've never been able to examine. Students at Salahaddin University and beyond will discover materials that were sitting in their own library but remained invisible without proper cataloging.

The 2026 phase will include equipment installation, staff training on digitization techniques, the actual scanning work, detailed cataloging, and initiatives to make everything publicly accessible online. The technical capacity built through this partnership means the university can continue preserving materials long after the initial project concludes.

In a region where conflict has threatened countless cultural treasures, this collaboration shows how international partnerships can protect heritage while building local expertise for the future.