The Vatican Apostolic Library, which houses one of the world’s most extensive collections of rare manuscripts and books, has recently created a small prayer room for Muslim scholars.
Vice-Prefect of the Apostolic Library, Father Giacomo Cardinali, confirmed to the Italian media that the room, equipped with a new prayer rug, was created following requests from Muslim researchers who regularly access the library’s resources at the Vatican.
“Of course, some Muslim scholars have asked us for a room with a carpet to pray, and we have given it to them,” said Cardinali, per Zenit.
Cardinali would then go on to say that the Vatican’s library is still “the most secular of all Vatican institutions,” referring to it as “a humanistic institution.”
Founded in 1475 by Pope Sixtus IV, the Vatican Library holds tens of thousands of manuscripts, over 1.6 million printed books, and a huge array of ancient or rare texts, including ancient Arabic manuscripts, Hebrew books, rare Ethiopian works, and one of the oldest Japanese manuscript archives outside of Japan itself.
The library limits physical access to about 60 qualified scholars per day. However, its ongoing digitization project has made significant portions of its collections now more widely available online, also helping to reinforce its role as a global hub for academic research.
Now, the new Muslim prayer room will align with Pope Leo XIV’s focus on “interfaith dialogue,” building off some similar leanings within the legacy of his predecessor Pope Francis.
Pope Francis has previously written about building understanding between faiths, specifically Islam.
Earlier this year, Pope Leo hosted representatives from various religions at the Vatican, further advocating for mutual respect and cooperation across different faiths.
Cardinali described the prayer room as consistent with the library’s mission to serve as a universal bank of knowledge, accessible to scholars regardless of their religious backgrounds.
“We are a universal library…We hold Arabic, Jewish, Ethiopian, and Chinese collections of unparalleled richness,” Cardinali said.
The decision to create a Muslim prayer room, however, may not be universally celebrated, as some Christians could argue that the Vatican’s gesture shows an imbalance in interfaith relations.
For example, non-Muslims are prohibited from accessing sites like Mecca, and there are severe restrictions on Christian worship in Muslim-majority countries worldwide.
In some of those Muslim-majority countries, like Nigeria, Christian communities continue to face severe persecution. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, a genocide in northeastern Nigeria has persisted this year, with data showing that more than 100,000 Christians have been murdered over the past decade at the hands of terrorist groups like Boko Haram.