DHAHRAN: In the quiet village of Umm Al-Hamam, located in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, a lifelong passion for books has been transformed into a cultural haven.
Ali Al-Herz, a bibliophile and literary archivist, has turned his home into Jadal Library, a treasure trove of over 37,000 books, more than 100,000 newspapers and magazines, and antiques, some dating back more than a century.
Yet Jadal is not just a library; it is much more than that. It is a museum to explore, a philosophical space to reflect, and a stand against forgetting important cultural stories.
Al-Herz told Arab News: “Since I was born I have been surrounded by my mother’s books. I grew up immersed in this passion to the point where it completely took hold of me; I became a bookworm.”
The spark that ignited it all was when Al-Herz encountered the epic “Sirat Antar” at age 13. “From that epic and through it,…
