The Ashurbanipal Library The beginning of human civilization marks the beginning of man’s quest for knowledge. Additionally, along The dissemination of knowledge also starts along with this quest for knowledge and takes many forms, including gestures, lines, letters, and forms. The environment of knowledge has been flowing in different directions throughout history. The materials of this knowledge distribution have been preserved for ages in several old libraries. The Ashurbanipal Library was one of these libraries. The oldest libraries were established in the writing-rich area of ancient Egypt. Among the world’s oldest private libraries is the Ashurbanipal Library.

Origin and Development:

Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, was a warrior, administrator and practical librarian. Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon conquered Egypt and united Babylon. Esarhaddon’s successor son Assurbanipal was one of the kings of Assyria. He moved his capital to Nineveh. There he established a royal library and began to consolidate the collections collected there. It is known as “Assurbanipal Library” after him.

Materials collected:

One of the Assyrian kings, Ashurbanipal, was well-known for his collections. He constructed a library in Nineveh, his capital, that housed thousands of clay tablets. Under his personal guidance, delegates traveled throughout the kingdom and even abroad, spanning the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, in order to gather written records and documents. Thirty thousand clay tablets were added to Assurbanipal’s library. Approximately twenty thousand discs featuring Ashurbanipal’s portraits are currently housed in the British Museum. The Ashurbanipal Library contained roughly ten thousand different kinds of materials.

Translation and Preservation Method of Ashurbanipal Library:

Ashurbanipal employed numerous scribes and scholars in his library for collection. Moreover, many copyists were employed to make copies of the collected copies. They were called “people of the written tablets”. Ancient Assyria had a religious god named “Nabu”. He was called the “God of Writing”. The management of the library was well organized and well planned. Here the librarians, directors, readers and scholars, supply persons, catalogers and other employees have all worked diligently for the development of the library. Assurbanipal’s royal library was open for the use of both public and private scholars.

Organizing and Classification:

There were many rooms in Ashurbanipal’s library. Numerous ceramic discs featuring various subjects were arranged in a hierarchical fashion in each room. The library was therefore simple to use. There were numerous divisions within the library, with seven primary sections. Many people believe these to be separated into indexing and classification.

Different Departments:
- History and Regime: Several books and clay tablets containing official records, king speeches, all of the treaties signed by the current rulers, biographies of officials, and lists of different rulers and kings were stacked in one particular room. In other words, records pertaining to history and governance were kept here.
- Foreign Information: Preserved tablets containing information from nearby states, letter copies, news from foreign ambassadors, and military officer administrative policies were all found in the same bite.
- Geography: There was information on geography in another room. The most important ones were lists of the commercial output of every area in the Assyrian kingdom, histories of rivers and mountains, and descriptions of towns and villages.
- Law Business and Revenue: Law, Judiciary and Governance and Legal Decisions comprised another section of the library. Commercial documents, import and export documents, merchant bills, and government spending fell into other categories. Additionally included in this section were documents pertaining to tax collection procedures.
- Science: The Ashurbanipal library’s science section was well-stocked with volumes on astronomy, astrology, biology, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and the medical sciences. Important medical science texts on a variety of diseases, disease control, etc., were used in the formation of this department. The Department of mathematics is important. Sections on square geometry, cubic roots, measurement and computation, and other topics were created. The computation of rent and Jizya taxes as evidence of submission falls under another heading.
- Mythology: The Assyrian religion was founded on a collection of myths, legends, and folktales that were inscribed on clay tablets and found in an important chamber.
- Section on Religion: King Ashurbanipal was deeply devoted to his religion. So he concentrated specially on this section. Scriptures, identification of gods and goddesses, lists and testimonials about them, biographies of saints and monks, their sacrifices and other related subjects were included in the religious section. Even the library section had numerous religious rituals, prayers and mantras.
- Department of Literature and Drama: Translations of foreign works of literature, as well as a wide range of literary works assembled and organized by ancestors. There was a drama-related section after that. Here, the king studied alongside businessmen, scholars, priests, and royal servants.
- Reference Section: School textbooks, reference bibliographies, maps, and geographical subjects are all included in this section along with grammar and dictionaries in various languages, such as Assyrian and Sumerian.
Material Arrangement:

Engraved on the walls or doors of every room were catalogs and descriptions of the materials. Tablet titles, tablet numbers, row numbers, open-space words, significant branches, positions, or classification symbols were listed in other works.

Destruction:

Sadly, the Assyrian civilization was completely destroyed by the battles fought in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, leaving this magnificent library in ruins. But the brick discs that fell were very hard. As a result, thousands of disks have been found among the debris after nearly 2,500 years. The British Museum currently houses the majority of these.