Under the slogan "Jerusalem, when the heritage is captive", the Arab Manuscript Day held by the Library and House of Manuscripts of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine in cooperation with the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts of the League of Arab States in Cairo and the Center for the revival of the Scientific Arab Heritage in Baghdad University, was concluded on Saturday 20th of Rajab 1439 AH corresponding to the April 7, 2018.
The closing ceremony was held at the hall of Imam al-Hassan al-Mujtaba (peace be upon him) and started by the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, followed by the speech of the preparatory committee and the final statement delivered by Mr. Mohamed Mohamed Hasan al-Wakil, director of the Center for the revival of the heritage of the Library and the House of manuscripts at the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine, in which he stated a set of recommendations that contribute to preserving and reviving the manuscript heritage:
First: Introducing the Arab-Islamic manuscript heritage by the specialized and concerned institutions among the segments of the educated society in all their strata and levels. Start with young people so that they know the importance of this heritage and what it represents for them.
Second: The necessity of joining hands and communication between the specialized entities (institutions and individuals) to reach effective ways to develop the field of preservation and revival of the manuscript heritage.
Third: The need for knowledge exchange and cooperation between institutions and individuals to catalog our manuscript heritage (books and images) in order to be presented by researchers to contribute to reviving and publishing with the necessary facilities.
Fourth: The need to establish specialized academic scientific institutes to teach the science of manuscripts, cataloging and restoration of manuscripts according to approved scientific curricula and approaching the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to take its natural role in this field.
In this regard, the Holy Shrine has adopted since more than two years ago after the blessing of His Eminence Sayed. Ahmed Al-Safi, the project of establishing a specialized academic institute in the field of manuscript heritage. And we had serious steps for the construction of this project despite the existence of some legal obstacles related to the same specialty (ie manuscript heritage) and our serious attempts to raise them continue to reach the desired goal.
Fifth: The necessity of serious cooperation in order to create a unified electronic database that includes a descriptive catalog of all the manuscripts preserved in our beloved provinces and libraries. The status of self-denial should be present in this field.
Sixth: the need to communicate between the investigation centers to identify what is achieved in order to prevent repetition without logical and scientific justification and the coordination among them to contribute to the achievement of the greatest possible number of our manuscript heritage.
Seventh: The need to hold seminars, forums and specialized conferences in the manuscript heritage written by the concerned authorities in order to be acquainted and discuss the exchange of heritage between the participating forces, which provides a service in this area.
At the end, certificates were distributed to participants.