KL Report
Srinagar
With an aim to sensitize and broaden the understanding amongst the scholars, teachers and academicians for preserving the historic manuscripts a 21-day workshop on ‘manuscriptology and paleography’ organized by the Department of Persian Studies, University of Kashmir started here at KU on Friday.
The inaugural session of the workshop which is being sponsored by National Mission for Manuscripts, Ministry of Culture, GOI was held at International Resource Cell Allama Iqbal Library KU during which the academicians and experts highlighted the importance of training the young teachers and scholars of the interdisciplinary areas so that they can easily read and understand the different scripts of various manuscripts which have been preserved in different libraries and personal domain of the people of Kashmir.
In his Presidential address Dean Social Sciences KU Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Wani stressed upon the historical importance of different styles and scripts used in the writings of manuscripts and said that due to the new syllabi the young generation is not aware about the literature of our ancestors.
He said “It is the need of the hour that teachers and scholars should be trained so that the heritage of our society should be preserved, translated and revived.”
While focussing on the literary history of Arabic and Persian Language Dr Manzoor Ahmad from the Department of Islamic studies said “Mir Syed Ali Hamadani (R.A) was the great ambassador of Kashmiri Culture and wrote about 170 books on diverse topics in Persian and Arabic language. However most of these books are not available in Kashmir due to the unawareness about the scripts and therefore people could not understand and read the literature of these great scholars.”
In his presentation Chief Librarian Allama Iqbal Library, KU Dr. AM Baba focussed on the importance of rare Persian and Arabic Manuscripts available in Kashmir during which Dr. Baba gave a comparative analysis about the literature and manuscripts of Kashmir and Central Asia.
Head Department of Arabic Prof Shad Hussian while speaking about the importance of manuscripts available in Kashmir stressed upon the importance of research in the field of Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and Urdu manuscripts whereas Prof MM .Masoodi while giving the details about the availability of manuscripts and the scripts in which manuscripts had been written said that this course will help and support the research scholars and teachers of interdisciplinary studies to revive and understand the national heritage (manuscripts) of our nation.
Earlier in his welcome address Dr Jahangir Iqbal Co-ordinator DSA-I-UGC who is also the coordinator of the workshop explained in detail the main aims and objections of the workshop.
Dr Afroze Alam, Assistant Professor, Department of Persian presented vote of thanks on the occasion whereas the proceedings of the inaugural session were conducted by Shahnawaz Shah. More than 40 participants and about 50 aspirants attended the function. The participants included teachers and research scholars from the department of Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Islamic Studies, CCAS, Kashmir Studies, Iqbal Institute and Markaz-i- Noor.
