Thumbing the pages of the stack of new textbooks on his desk, Mosul University’s director of libraries felt grateful for what they had but could not help but lament what was lost.

The university’s Central Library once housed one of the most extensive collections of literature in the Middle East, and for 18 years Mohammed Jassim al-Hamdany had been its caretaker.

But after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) seized control of the Iraqi city in the summer of 2014, Moslawis found themselves without a library and Mr Hamdany without a job.

Staff and students fled, fearing what was to come. And when it did come it was worse than they could have ever expected.

Mr Hamdany watched the images on TV of Isil lighting fire to the library on a day still etched in his mind - February 3, 2015. The jihadists jeered as they rigged the building with explosives and doused the shelves with petrol.