Tracing the arrival of printed books, the evolution of their format and the opening of public libraries between the late 19th century and the 1960s in Mizab (a region located North of the Algerian Sahara desert), this paper argues that Ibadi patrimony (turâth)—as Ibadis and scholars understand it today—was formed recently and represented a massive change in the Ibadi literary and scholarly culture. From the 1880s onwards, Ibadi books began to be printed, although it was only during the interwar period that the scholarly formats began to change radically and that Ibadi scholars shaped and magnified a literary patrimony, throughout the edition of ancient texts and the opening of public libraries. Showing how the use of the printing press went hand-to-hand with the end of the lively 19th century scholastic culture and the building of an ideal Ibadi library, I suggest that a social and cultural history of Ibadi patrimony and archives would shed new light on our vision of modern Ibadism and Ibadis in Algeria. This presentation also considers the role played by the ideological and political context in the invention of this patrimony: the increase of Algerian nationalist ideas during the 20th century influences deeply the way Ibadis framed their history and culture. In sum, the aim here is to provide a critical reading of Ibadi classical sources as productions of the colonial period cultural ruptures.