Hawzah News Agency (Mashhad, Iran) - Visits of various groups of world's salient scientists and elites is one of the main international activities of Astan Quds Razavi's Islamic Research Foundation. In this regard, the center hosted two Christian activists in the area of Abrahamic religions' proximity.
Professor Edward, professor of western philosophy in American Universities, and Dr. Yousef Rahman, professor of world history, were two Lebanese Christians who had meetings with some of the IRF's researchers. They made acquaintance with the activities of the foundation as well.
On the sideline of this visit, head of Qur'an department of Astan Quds Razavi's Islamic Research Foundation introduced his department's research activities and said, "This center was established by Astan Quds Razavi in 1984. Qur'an department is one the most active academic groups in Islamic Research Foundation and it has produced lots of precious works up to now".
Noting that the Qur'an department is doing two important research projects now, Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Mu'min Zādih stressed, "Dictionary of Qur'an's Jurisprudence and Secrets of its Eloquence is one of these projects. Thirty five volumes of this work have ever been published. Book of Texts in Qur’anic Studies is another work of this group from which ten volumes have been printed".
He said, "Valuable book of Dictionary of Qur'an's Jurisprudence and Secrets of its Eloquence is a work which produces science from Qur’an-based Islamic sciences. Qur'an's terms have all been arranged in this work alphabetically and explanations of each word are given in four entries. At first, a brief explanation on the word structure and its usage number in different Surahs is given and then the word’s meaning is examined in lexical sources according to the date of compilation.
Mu'min Zādih went on to say, "Views of various commentators on that term since the beginning of Islam up to the contemporary time are brought. Following this section, the books moves from literary aspect to the terminology of the word and finally deals with the connotative and denotative meanings of the term. On the last section which is the most important one, all Qur'anic applications of the word are given based on the thinking and analysis on the information".
Continuing his remarks, this researcher mentioned, "Receiving lexical, interpretive, and literary information from this source, the Qur'anic researcher finds himself free from other dictionaries at first. In the next stage, he can take concise meaning of the word and take its advantage in his Qur’anic ponderings by going through the book’s analysis''.
Emendation and Manuscripts Restoration
Speaking at the same gathering, head of Documents Center of Astan Quds Razavi's Islamic Research Foundation introduced emendation and reviving manuscripts as one of the main research activities of the center and said, This center once had twenty research groups including Qur'anic studies, tradition (Hadith) researches, jurisprudential principles, Islamic economy, geography and Islamic countries, and so on each of which were busy with producing works and researches on different topics".
Mohsen Naji Nasr Abadi stated, "One of the activities conducting in different departments of this center is old manuscripts emendation and restoration. This action can be related to the presence of Astan Quds Razavi’s library in vicinity of this Foundation".
He reiterated, "There are about 100 thousand old manuscripts in Astan Quds Razavi's Central Library; the age of some of which turns back to the third and fourth centuries. The oldest text showing the existence of a library near Astan Quds Razavi backs to the year 345 AH/ 957 AD. This text had been endowed to the organization at that time".
Head of Documents Department of Astan Quds Razavi's Islamic Research Foundation went on to say, "The age of some Qur'ans is discovered from the sheet, writing and ink type. The oldest hand written text refers back to the year 50 AH. This text is in public display at a British museum now ".