Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) - Iran forerunner of preserving Islamic culture; Velayati

In the ceremony held to unveil Remembering the Halcyon Days of Yore at Malek National Museum and Institution, Ali Akbar Velayati said Iranians are the forerunners of preserving the Islamic culture among other Islamic countries.

IBNA: A collection of works on Islamic arts donated by Ezat Malek to the museum was mounted on Saturday (May 12, 2012) in the presence of the Supreme Leader’s advisor Ali Akbar Velayati, Mojtaba Husseini, manager of the museum, Ali Mo'alem Damghani, head of the Arts Academy of Iran, and a number of art lovers at Malek National Museum and Institution.

In his opening speech, Husseini stated that the founder of the Malek complex (Haj Hussein Malek) used to celebrate seven religious events of the year and the ceremony was being held in line with the same trend practiced in the museum.

Besides unveiling the book, and exhibition of Islamic arts pieces offered to the library by the founder’s daughter (Ezat Malek) launched in the library. The offerings are a 120-piece collection of exquisite works of art.

He further stated that Remembering the Halcyon Days of Yore is a visual book themed at the offered works by Ezat Malek which has been published by Yassavoli and will be marketed in a few days.

He went on to say that the exhibition took 6 months to prepare. “Maintaining a museum in Iran is like an iceberg with most of its mass unseen. The job has many troubles hidden in it that are never noticed by visitors.”

Later in the ceremony, Ali Akbar Velayati praised individuals like Haj Hussein Malek for their donations and said,”He (Haj Hussein Malek) is an exemplary figure in our time or even history. What he did was so great during the time Iran was inflicted by World Wars I and II commotions; and now his daughter is following her father’s example.”

“There have been many dedicated individuals in our history that have preserved our culture for several years by their activities,” added Velayati. “There lived people like Abu Mansour Mohammad Razagh in Isfahan who collected Iran’s history and prepared Abu Mansouri Shahnameh to become the founding stone of Ferdowsi’s magnum opus Shahnameh.”

The Supreme Leader’s advisor in international affairs further mentioned Khajeh Nasir Tousi as another figure who founded this center to preserve as many as 200,000 book volumes against the Mongolian invasions.

He went on to say that among other magnificent libraries in the world of Islam, Iranian ones have played a key role in preserving Islamic culture.