Towards preserving rare Arabic manuscripts

Centre to sanction Rs. 13 crore to Dairatul Maarif

March 02, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:37 am IST - Hyderabad:

Dairatul Maarif, the ancient institute devoted for preservation of rare Arabic manuscripts, has got a new lease of life with the Ministry of Minority Affairs agreeing to sanction Rs. 13 crore.

The visit of Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Minority Affairs, Government of India, to the institute the other day signalled good days for it.

Funds will be released under the Government of India scheme ‘Hamari Darohar’, which aims at preserving the rich heritage of minority communities in the context of Indian culture. The funds would be sanctioned over the next few years in instalments.

Mr. Mayaram asked the Telangana Minority Welfare Secretary, Syed Omer Jaleel, to immediately send a proposal in this regard. Mr. Mayaram and other senior officials accompanying him were quite impressed by the treasure trove of books at the institute situated in the Osmania University campus. At the same time, they were shocked at its run down condition and the poor facilities available to preserve the manuscripts. The officials were in the city to attend a meeting on bifurcation of the Wakf Board.

Mr. Mayaram, who had heard a lot about Dairatul Maarif from his wife who visited it earlier for her research work, did not want to give it a miss. He made a detailed inspection of the editing, composing, printing and binding sections and also examined the rare collection of books. The Central team was quite surprised at the Arabic translation of Geeta.

Dairatul Maarif was established in 1888 during the reign of the 6{+t}{+h}Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, with the objective of procuring, transcribing, collating, editing and publishing rare Arabic manuscripts of prominent scholars belonging to the classical era of Islam. Over the years, the Institute has published books covering a wide range of subjects such as interpretation of the Quran, traditions, history, philosophy, Sufism, metaphysics, medicine, surgery, mathematics and others. Vice-President, Hamid Ansari, was among the many dignitaries to visit Dairatul Maarif.

Mr. Mayaram suggested digitalisation of the books and their translation in English.

Funds will be released under the Government of India scheme ‘Hamari Darohar’

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.