After Hisham al-Maaytah mourned the loss of thousands of old books and rare manuscripts in a fire that engulfed his iconic bookshop, Hisham’s Kiosk, in downtown Amman on Tuesday, King Abdullah II offered him financial compensation as his way of supporting the bookshop owner and the reading culture in Jordan.

Hisham told Hala News that he was deeply grateful for the King’s kind gesture, and for his support for the cultural scene in Jordan.

The late King Abdullah I of Jordan was the first royal to support Al-Jahith's Treasury in the 1940s.

Hisham’s Kiosk is one of three bookshops owned by the al-Maaytah brothers under the collective name of Al-Jahith's Treasury.

At least 10,000 old books and manuscripts were destroyed in the fire, including newspapers and journal editions from the early 1900s, as well as thousands of rare books that the family had obtained in auction from the offices of the British Mandate in Palestine in 1947.