Hawzah News Agency –In a joint webinar, Mohammad Hadi Zahedi, director of the AQR Documentation and Press Center, called the Holy Quran the most articulate and durable Islamic document that had stood the test of time.
Pointing to AQR’s priceless copies of the Holy Quran from the early Islamic centuries and attributed to the Infallible Imams (AS), he attached great significance to the remaining ancient documents and manuscripts as the nation’s identity, investigation of which can shed light on their evolution of thought. “These documents represent different socio-political and economic periods of Iran’s history, hence are invaluable cache of data.”
Zahedi deemed ancient manuscripts and documents proof of ancestral conduct and life respectively, considering their protection an indisputable imperative given the colossal role they played in the nation’s history.
Further, the official referred to the valuable Islamic heritage existing in documentation centers of other Muslim countries and called for interaction among them. “This nexus can put together the golden pieces of Islamic puzzle presenting an exquisite picture of the precious Islamic civilization to the world”.
Elsewhere in the webinar, Elaheh Mahboub, head of AQR Documents Department, introduced different research capacities in the two centers, expressing hope that the collaboration would create a unified archive for researchers.
For his part, Salah al-Seraj, director of Imaging and Cataloguing Center of Hazrat Abbas holy shrine in Iraq, appreciated AQR’s measures in protecting the past heritage and urged national resolution to safeguard it.
The Iraqi side also stressed that various political, economic, social and religious documents were vital cognitive and epistemological treasury which contain precise information not found in other sources. However, he regretted, “despite being unique, the world of documents has not received adequate attention so far, and lack of good care and a digital copy have left some documents in deplorable condition”.
Al-Seraj further declared the protection of heritage as a public duty, saying that the Iraqi center has petitioned the people to donate manuscripts and written ancestral heritage, which had met with widespread public support.