Yesterday morning saw violence in the Al Aqsa Mosque. A Knesset member (parliament) with extreme views about retaking the Mosque from the muslims to rebuild the Jewish Temple had proposed such a law to be read at the Knesset. Muslims became nervous and blocaded themselves in the Mosque at midnight. When the Mosque doors opened in the morning, muslims inside threw stones at the Israeli police on the outside. The police retaliated by firing stun grenades and tear gas ... what a way to wake up in the morning.
http://virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=12217
Anyway things calmed down later in the morning. But there was still a heavy military presence throughout the City. Young men were stopped, questioned and even searched. I witnessed a young man with hands on the wall, legs spread eagle while soldiers did a body search ... right in Damascus Gate. Dreadful.
It started to drizzle all night and this morning. Pretty chilly. I have difficulty in breathing but its not asthma ... just a heavy chest like bronchitis. And my fingers are all swollen with arthritis.
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One of the ancient
manuscripts in our library |
Well I have to work as usual. Yesterday morning we had a very important consignment for our library's ancient books department. Some 10 ancient illuminated manuscripts from the 12th - 14th centuries. Absolutely lovely. Most are just below a metre tall ... those ancient monastic prayer books with gregorian notations and lovely decorated initials, some in gold. What a treasure. I have a team from Italy cataloguing them and one specialist who studies each one. Most are in very good condition because the vellum / parchment used were good quality. But others had gone mouldy or destroyed by insects. I will need a professional vellum restorer from Italy to come and repair these codices. And I surprised everyone by chanting one of the pages ... no one expected a chinese to read gregorian notation from the 12th century. Never judge a book by its cover ... (pun intended).
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