Visiting Zheen Archive Center
Zheen Establishment also known as Zheen Archive Center is located on the Piramygran Street No. 11, Baranan District 107, next to Shekh Farid Mosque, opposite to the Metro Supermarket, Sulaimaniya. Lynn and I decided to visit this organisation to find out about it. We arrived there in the morning (around 10.45 am). There was a friendly security guard greeted us and took us to one of the offices. We talked to Mr. Sadiq Salih Ahmad (supposedly the head of the institution). We introduced ourselves and then, Mr Sadiq gave us a short introduction about his organisation and took a for a little tour in the building (his English is quite good).
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Zheen Establishment Building
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So, what is the Zheen Establishment? It is a non governmental organisation. It was founded in 2004. Zheen means life in Kurdish. It works to preserve the Kurdish history by documenting them in various forms such as microfilms, recordings, clippings, and printed publications. It also restoring Kurdish old manuscripts.
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| Interpreting old manuscripts |
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| The old manuscripts glued in a special paper and then dried |
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| Dried manuscripts |
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| Aha, Pepsi Cola advertisement in the old Kurdish Magazine |
Perhaps, it is the only organisation in the world that documenting the Kurdish history in four regions (Kurdish in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkish) and has significant amount of collections in various languages (Kurdish, Farsi, Arabic, English, French and Germany).
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| The library |
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| Some collections in the library |
They really do a very important work. Although they face difficulties in funding (no government subsidy unfortunately), they try to keep going and it seems they are able to get some support from overseas. I do really hope that they can survive and get more attention from international organisations such as UNESCO and funding agencies. It is a really worth visiting this place. We may come back again!
Links which relate to Zheen Archive Center Activities:
Old Kurdish Handwritings Found in Saddam Hussein's House
Sulaimaniya: Saving the Dream City of a Kurdish Prince
