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History
 Birth of an institution:
Heir to the libraries of Muslim North Africa, the National Library was initially instituted under the French protectorate by Ali Pacha Bey III following a decree on March , 1885. The initial collection was constituted from the donated holdings of Tunisia’s Department of Public Education, and augmented by the collection of Charles Tissot, a former French Consul in Tunisia.
Situated close to the Zitouna mosque at the heart of Tunis’ Medina, the library truly blossomed in 1910 when it moved to Souk Al-Attarine and Louis Barbeau was appointed as the new director.
Library at Al-Attarine:
When the library attained the status of National Library of Tunisia at the time of the country’s independence in 1956, works in Arabic made up less than one-sixth of the collection. With the appointment of Othman El Kaâk as director, the collection of Arabic works underwent serious development.
The presidential decree of September 7, 1967 consolidated all of the manuscripts scattered throughout Tunisia in various mausoleums, mosques, and libraries. Accordingly, the manuscripts from the two famous libraries of the great Zitouna mosque – al-Abdalliya (16th century) and al-Ahmadiya (19th century) – were transferred to the National Library.
The Press Code of 1975 designated the National Library as Tunisia’s repository of legal deposit for all national intellectual publications. |