Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) - 85000 Persian Manuscripts identified in Pakistan

During the specific session of the Written Heritage Research Center, Dr Aref Noshahi Pakistani researcher and codicologist stressed that subcontinent manuscript's joint cataloguing center could follow Iran-Pakistan Research Center in cataloguing Persian manuscripts of India.

IBNA: During the 81st session of the Written Heritage Research Center held on Monday (July 11), Pakistani researcher and codicologist Dr Aref Noshahi emphasized upon the necessity to compile joint catalogues.

He said: "The subcontinent is one of the largest world areas in holding manuscripts. It is a fact acknowledged by anyone familiar with the history of Persian Literature that the subcontinent had a major role in producing works in Persian language. And no need to mention that the subcontinent is one of the largest world areas in terms of the number of manuscripts at hand."

8000 Sanskrit manuscripts kept at the University of Punjab

Noshahi continued: "Besides manuscripts in local languages, there are also ones in Persian and Arabic. For instance, the University of Punjab holds over 8000 Sanskrit manuscripts. I dare say that the subcontinent rivals Turkey, Iran and Uzbekistan in the number of manuscripts."

Stressing the abundance of these manuscripts allover Pakistani villages, he then referred to his personal notes taken from scarce manuscripts of Pakistan that proves the existence of 25 thousands of new manuscripts.

Noshahi's cataloguing of manuscripts on Quranic Sciences will be completed in four or five volumes by the end of the year 2011. He would basically follow Master Monzavi's method in compiling the catalogues.

Noshahi asserted that after the publication of Monzavi's 14-volume catalogue, about 85 thosuand Persian manuscripts were identified in Pakistan and this reveals that Persian language has an effective presence in this country.

India as the greatest manuscript centers of the world

Noshahi said: "Yet India as the largest part of the subcontinent also holds many manuscripts. In fact, India today is one of the greatest manuscript centers of the world and exquisite manuscripts are kept throughout its libraries. Fortunately most of Indian books are catalogued yet there has never been a common manuscript catalogue there."

In Noshahi's opinion, the common manuscript catalogue of India should be made through two phases: first, all Indian catalogues should be merged by sophisticated translators and then uncatalogued manuscripts should be identified and added to the collection.

Then commemorating two late masters Ali-Naghi Monzavi and Iraj Afshar, he expressed his regret of losing these bridges between Iran and the world of Iranology. He referred to Afshar as the protector of subcontinent professors and also hoped that Written Heritage Research Center would also pay attention to the Subcontinent Literature.