After 15 Years In Hiding, Syrian Man Breaks Wall To Recover A Lost Library

New Delhi: For 15 years, a vast private library remained hidden behind a false wall inside a shattered house in Homs, Syria. Its owner, Abu Bilal, had concealed the books when the country descended into civil war around 2011-12. He fled to Kuwait, hoping he would one day return and recover them, according to The Telegraph. That moment finally came after Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024 and forced to flee to Moscow where they were granted asylum out of “humanitarian considerations", according to Russian state news agency TASS. Abu Bilal returned to the western city of Homs and began breaking through the wall that protected his collection for years. His son, Bilal Alloun, filmed the emotional moment this week and shared the footage online. As the wall came down, dust filled the room while Abu Bilal carefully looked inside.Thank God, Everything Is FinePeering through the opening, Abu Bilal expressed relief at finding his collection of books. “Thank God, everything is fine so far, apart from some dust,” he said. He then discovered money that had also been hidden behind the wall. Pulling out the cardboard used to protect the cash, he said, “And the money – we placed money here too."🇸🇾🇰🇼 He walled off his library in Damascus and left the country with it still insideAbu Bilal sealed the shelves at the end of 2011, then went to Kuwait. Under Assad, the wrong title in a house search could end in a cell. Years later he came back, knocked the plaster out, and…— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 17, 2026Looking at the books, he thanked God that the collection had survived and remained in good condition. “God bless us and allow us to return to our homeland," he added.A Lifetime Of Religious BooksThe library represents a lifetime of collecting and religious study. Among the items are leather-bound volumes with detailed designs, biographies of the Prophet Mohammed and works of Sunni Islamic scholarship.The collection also contains a complete set of Jami' al-Usul fi Ahadith al-Rasul, a medieval compilation of sayings of the Prophet drawn from major hadith collections.Abu Bilal also recovered his prayer beads and certificates documenting years of religious study. He was surprised at how much he had managed to fit into the hidden space, saying, “Even in the smallest space, we found room for a book, making the most of it as we ran out of room.”Son Calls It A Long-Awaited HomecomingIn posts shared online, Bilal Alloun described his father's return as a homecoming years in the making. He wrote that his father had refused to leave Homs at the beginning of the uprising until he had first “secured” his library. After what he described as the “victory God granted us”, the family's biggest concern was what had happened to the books.Books Return To Syria's Public SpacesUnder Bashar al-Assad, Syria's security authorities kept a close watch on what people could read and discuss. Books on subjects such as the country's prisons, radical Islamic thought and politics were banned, while booksellers were questioned about the people buying particular titles. Following Assad's fall, books that were once restricted have begun appearing openly in Damascus bookshops and on pavements. These include prison memoirs, previously banned novels and works by scholars whose writings had long been prohibited.