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Qatar National Library is Finally Open to The Public

HH The Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has opened the Qatar National Library.

HH The Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has finally officially opened the long awaited Qatar National Library.

In special opening event, the Emir opened the Qatar National Library by placing the one-millionth book on one of its many shelves, Gulf Time reported.

The one-millionth book was a rare thousand-year-old manuscript by Sahih Al Bukhari, which includes a collection of authentic Hadiths (records of the traditions or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH).

HH The Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and QF Chairperson HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, as well as other high ranking officials were also among the attendees.

The inaugural ceremony was followed by a speech from poet Tamim Al Barghouti titled ‘It is still possible’, followed by a film about the Qatar National Library.

Spread across more than 45,000 square-meters, the building currently houses some 800,000 books, with the capacity to accommodate more than a million. Mainly in Arabic and English, the collection includes works in more than 17 languages.

It had a soft-opening in November 2017, testing the waters, and have had more than 200,000 visitors since.

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