Located on the street Djemaa ez Zitouna in Tunis, National Library of Tunisia was founded in the year 1885. On December 1, 2005 the new headquarter of this National Library was inaugurated by President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali. Housed in the Sidi el Mordjani Barracks, this library was also called as French Library.

Situated close to the Zitouna Mosque at the heart of Tunis, the National Library is the legal deposit and copyright for Tunisia. It has a rich collection of rare and ancient works of around 5, 00000 volumes in the form of manuscripts, books and periodicals -

Manuscripts -The manuscript collection preserves at the National Library of Tunisia consists of titles nearly around 40,000 grouped in multiple volumes. In addition to this large collection, it includes specimen with lovely leather bindings and ornate illuminations that makes this collection one of the most beautiful in the world. Among the manuscript stock, one rare piece is "Tafsir Yahia Ibn Sallam", which is an antique work of 10th century AD.

This main collection of the library covers several areas of Arabic and Muslim civilization with a period of 14th centuries. Here visitors can find some interesting information related to religion, literature, law, medicine, astrology and music.

Books - Presently the books collection has a total of around one million volumes, including a certain number of titles that dates back to the beginning of 16th century. Apart from the collection of Arabic and French books, the National Library of Tunisia also houses several books in English, German and other languages. In short, literary works of more than 50 languages are housed in Tunisia National Library presently.

Periodicals - The Periodical stocks at the library are divided into various sub-collections. Among these foreign and Arabic language collections, as well as of Tunisian ones are most noteworthy and date back to 1860.

Apart from these three main collections, Tunisia National Library additionally features interesting stocks of maps, postcards, digital study material and microfilms. The library lies close to National Archives of Tunisia and higher educational institutions like Faculty of Social and Human Sciences.

Opening Hours: Daily except Sunday and holidays.
Reading room: 8:30 am - 8 pm
Periodical reading room: 9 am - 3:30 pm
Manuscript reading room: 8:30 am - 2:30 pm