TEHRAN – The director of the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI), Reza Salehi-Amiri, has expressed his concerns over the poor preservation conditions of a large number of rare Iranian manuscripts, which are being kept at libraries in Central Asia, Pakistan and India.
“About one million Iranian manuscripts in Persian and Arabic are being kept in India and Pakistan and there are about 500,000 Persian manuscripts in the Central Asian countries,” he told the Persian service of MNA on Sunday.
“Unfortunately I must admit that the preservation situation in these countries is alarming for the manuscripts,” he lamented.
“These manuscripts are considered as Iranian cultural heritage so we should either buy the manuscripts and transfer them to Iran or provide a digital version for books,” he added.
He said that over 2600 exquisite manuscripts are also being kept at the National Library of France and there are many more in Spain, he added.
The NLAI has conducted some negotiations with the government to provide the necessary funds for buying these manuscripts and transfer them to Iran, he concluded.
SB/YAW
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