Written by Our Forefathers, Preserved by Us

The Archive Room at the Mar Ibrahim Library holds a nascent collection of ancients manuscripts that need special handling.

The manuscript legacy of the Mar Ibrahim Library

By Michael Antoon

For centuries, handwritten manuscripts have carried the heart of Chaldean Christianity—its prayers, teachings, and sacred traditions. Preserved through persecution and passed down through generations, these texts have long connected us to our faith, language, and identity. Now, inside a secure Archive Room at the Mar Ibrahim Library—named after His Excellency Mar Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, the first Chaldean Eparch of the United States—this sacred legacy is being protected for generations to come.

What Is a Manuscript and Why It Matters
Long before printing presses, digital files, or even modern bound books, our Church relied on something far more personal: the human hand. A manuscript is a handwritten document—often a great work requiring deep devotion and dedication, copied with patience and care by monks, bishops, priests, deacons, and scholars. In the tradition of the Chaldean Church of the East, these manuscripts carried our theology, liturgy, prayers, and customs across centuries of history, persecution, and displacement.

Unlike printed books, no two manuscripts are exactly the same. Each bears the handwriting of a specific person—a forefather from centuries ago whose presence is still felt in the ink we read today.

The manuscripts now—and those yet to come—housed in the Mar Ibrahim Library reflect the heart of our faith and culture. They include, but are not limited to, liturgies of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, daily offices of evening and morning prayer, hymns, meditations, prayers, and many other hidden treasures. These manuscripts were copied in the Church’s native tongue, Aramaic—sometimes by clergy or monks in our homeland, and at other times by Chaldean faithful and deacons striving to preserve and pass on our tradition. Each one offers a window into the life of our Church and the spirituality of those who came before us.

Preserving these manuscripts isn’t about nostalgia or about collecting old-looking books. It’s about honoring what sustained us—and what continues to sustain us today. As Chaldeans, our faith is the center of our lives. Woe to us if we do not preserve the very texts that built that faith! To forget where we came from and the treasures we once held would be a disservice to the forefathers who quite literally gave their lives to protect them.

Projects like the manuscript cataloging effort by Shamasha Khairy Foumia, in his book The Manuscripts of the Church of Telkeppe, remind us that our story was not written by outsiders—it was written by the hands of our own people.

When we see or read from these texts, we are not simply reading history. We are reconnecting with the faith, language, and identity of our ancestors.

The Archive Room: How We’re Preserving Them
Preserving a manuscript is not as simple as placing it on a shelf. These are fragile, one-of-a-kind works—sensitive to light, temperature, and even the way they are handled. That’s why the Mar Ibrahim Library was built with intention. At the center of it all is the Archive Room: a secure, climate-controlled, and carefully constructed space designed specifically to safeguard the precious and sacred texts of our Church and people.

From the moment a manuscript enters the Archive Room, it is treated with care, dignity, and professional preservation protocols. The room’s temperature and humidity are closely monitored. Everything is designed with longevity in mind—because these texts weren’t meant to survive only for our generation, but for the ones still to come.

Each manuscript will be carefully examined and cataloged, with plans to gradually expand the system digitally as the collection grows. This room was not designed to be a museum. It is a living space of memory and trust—a place where manuscripts can be protected while still being studied and shared respectfully with clergy, researchers, and members of the community. For our children, it can offer a glimpse into where they came from—to help them understand who they are, and where they are going.

The current collection is only the beginning. As more families, clergy, and scholars become aware of this mission, the Archive Room is prepared to grow. It was built with the future in mind—ready to receive contributions from across the diaspora and beyond.

Digitization: Protecting the Past for the Future
Preserving manuscripts physically is only part of the work. In today’s world, protecting them also means making sure they’re never lost to time, damage, or disaster. That’s why one of the most important efforts planned at the Mar Ibrahim Library—already well underway throughout the Chaldean Church—is the digitization of every manuscript we hold.

Through high-resolution photography and careful cataloging, each text will be preserved digitally—page by page, word by word. This not only protects the original from wear and deterioration, but also makes it accessible to scholars, clergy, and students around the world—without compromising the physical versions that are already so delicate. Digitization bridges the gap between preservation and accessibility, allowing these sacred works to live beyond the Archive Room.

In addition to digitizing manuscripts already in our possession, the Chaldean Diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle, under the leadership of His Excellency Mar Francis Kalabat, has also been working to acquire and preserve digital and printed copies of rare Chaldean and Eastern manuscripts held in major institutions abroad. Through extensive research, PDF copies of ancient Chaldean texts are being located in national libraries around the world—scanned, ordered, and printed to be housed right here in our own collection. In doing so, we ensure that these texts are not just accessible to universities or foreign archives, but to the very people they were written by and for.

This effort reflects a growing movement across the Chaldean Church. One of its most courageous leaders is Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel, the current Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul. His work in preserving ancient manuscripts spans decades—but it was during the most violent chapter of Iraq’s recent history that his mission became internationally recognized.

As ISIS invaded Qaraqosh and Mosul in 2014, Archbishop Najeeb—then a Chaldean Dominican friar—personally filled his car with rare manuscripts, fleeing east to the Kurdish region just days before ISIS arrived. These texts included over 850 handwritten manuscripts in Aramaic, Arabic, Syriac, and other languages. He had been moving many of them from Mosul to Qaraqosh since 2007, anticipating the growing threat of extremism.

In the years that followed, he and a small team—Christian and Muslim—digitally scanned thousands of manuscripts from churches and villages across northern Iraq. Working out of Erbil, they ensured that these documents, covering subjects from theology and philosophy to astronomy, medicine, and history, would survive even if the originals were destroyed. In a 2020 article by Catholic News Agency, he explained:

“In fact, the manuscripts and the archives of these ancient documents make up our history and are our roots. We cannot save a tree without saving its roots. The two can bear fruit,” he said.

“So, it is important, all of these archives. This history is a part of our collective archives, our past, our history. And these we absolutely had to save, as our children.”

He later formalized this work through the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux (CNMO)—the Digital Center for Eastern Manuscripts. Today, the CNMO is one of the most respected manuscript preservation institutions in the Middle East. Its mission is to digitize, restore, and protect manuscripts from churches, monasteries, and communities throughout Iraq. Thousands of texts have already been scanned, archived, and shared with institutions around the world. The center continues to train young Iraqis in conservation—ensuring that this sacred work lives on.

Here in Michigan—the largest Chaldean diaspora community in the world—the Diocese, through the Mar Ibrahim Library, joins that same mission. Our goal is not merely to admire these manuscripts, but to use them: for prayer, research, education, and a renewed connection with the spirituality of our ancestors. Digitization allows these texts to be studied, taught, and passed on—not just stored away. This work will continue as the collection grows, with the ultimate goal of building a full digital archive to serve Chaldeans locally and globally.

A Community Effort
The preservation of our manuscripts is not the work of one person alone—it is the work of an entire community. From the beginning, the Chaldean Diocese Mar Ibrahim Library has been shaped by the generosity of Chaldean families, clergy, deacons, and scholars who understood that this mission belongs to all of us. It is a shared responsibility.

Many of the volumes housed in the Archive Room came from the personal collection of His Excellency Mar Ibrahim N. Ibrahim. Over decades of leadership, the Diocese, through foundational leaders like Bishop (then father) Francis and Shamasha Khairy gathered texts from many—books that reflected the intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Church of the East. Today, those works serve as the foundation for what the library is becoming.

Families throughout the Chaldean community have stepped forward with manuscripts and rare books passed down through generations, wrapped in cloth or sewn into handmade pouches. Many deacons have contributed texts from their own collections and those of their late fathers or grandfathers. In every case, there is a sense of reverence and trust. These are not just donations, they are inheritances being shared with the wider family of the Church and community.

The library was designed to honor that trust. Families who contribute to the Archive Room maintain access to their manuscripts. The room is secure, climate-controlled, and managed with the highest preservation standards. Contributors are welcome to visit their donated items, knowing that they are not locked away in a vault, but preserved with dignity, protected for study, and made accessible for future generations.

This is still only the beginning. As the library grows, so does the invitation to take part in it. We encourage families, deacons, and scholars to contribute—whether by donating original manuscripts, sharing family collections, or helping locate rare texts in need of proper preservation. Every contribution becomes part of a larger story. Together, we are not just building a library but rather building a lasting legacy.

Why This Matters Now — and What Comes Next
The preservation of manuscripts is not just about memory—it’s about continuity. As Chaldeans, especially in the diaspora, we are called to protect what our ancestors risked everything to pass down. In recent years, we’ve witnessed the destruction of churches, libraries, and cultural treasures across Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, etc., many erased in moments. What was preserved on paper and tradition for centuries came under threat.

That’s why the work of the Mar Ibrahim Library matters now more than ever. In a time when identity is vulnerable to silence or forgetting, we are choosing to remember. But this is only the beginning. The library’s vision is to grow into a global hub for Chaldean manuscripts—partnering with the global Chaldean Church, acquiring rare texts, and building a digital archive for our people around the world. We are looking to preserving just books, but our voice as a people.

If we do not preserve our roots, we cannot expect to bear fruit. This is our chance—not only to look back, but to ensure there is something lasting for those who come after us.

Closing Reflection
These manuscripts are more than old pages—they are prayers, voices, and memories written by those who came before us. They carried our faith through exile and persecution. Now it’s our turn to carry them to the future for our children.

Through the Mar Ibrahim Library, we are not just preserving books, we are preserving a people. In honoring these texts, we honor the generations who wrote them, read them, and lived by them. And in doing so, we leave behind more than a library. We leave a legacy of faith, culture, and identity that will not be forgotten.