The Director of the Islamic Civilization Center in Uzbekistan met with the head of the Manuscripts Department in Türkiye

The Director of the Islamic Civilization Center in Uzbekistan, Firdavs Abdukhalikov, visited the Directorate of Manuscripts under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Türkiye and held a meeting with the head of the department, Coşkun Yılmaz.

During the meeting, it was noted that relations between Uzbekistan and Türkiye are reaching an increasingly high level, and that high-level agreements between the leaders of the two countries play an important role in this process. Coşkun Yılmaz emphasized that he was deeply impressed by the large-scale development work being carried out during his several visits to Uzbekistan.

“The Uzbek and Turkish peoples are among the nations that share a common history and cultural heritage. Many manuscripts preserved in the Directorate of Manuscripts constitute a shared wealth of both peoples. Therefore, we must unite our efforts to study this heritage and explore the manuscripts through scientific cooperation,” said Coşkun Yılmaz.

During the meeting, a number of important issues were discussed. In particular, the continuation of the projects “100 Rare Manuscripts of the Holy Qur’an” and “100 Rare Manuscripts Related to Uzbekistan” being carried out by the Islamic Civilization Center in Uzbekistan was discussed. It was also noted that among the more than 800,000 manuscripts preserved in the Süleymaniye Library under the Directorate of Manuscripts of Türkiye, manuscripts related to the cultural heritage of Uzbekistan occupy an important place. Agreements were reached on jointly studying these manuscripts in the future, preparing facsimile editions, and conducting scientific research.

It was also emphasized that it is necessary to widely use artificial intelligence technologies in reading and studying manuscripts. At present, long-term cooperation is being conducted at the Islamic Civilization Center in Uzbekistan to convert historical manuscripts into the modern alphabet. It is planned that the results of this cooperation will also be applied in the study of manuscripts preserved in the Süleymaniye Library in the future.

At the end of the meeting, the head of the Directorate of Manuscripts of Türkiye, Coşkun Yılmaz, presented a facsimile copy of the work “Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk” by the great scholar Mahmud Kashgari to the Islamic Civilization Center in Uzbekistan.

It should be noted that the only copy of this rare manuscript, created in the early 11th century, is preserved in the National Library of Türkiye. A limited number of facsimile copies of this work have been published by the Directorate of Manuscripts, and this facsimile copy is expected to be displayed in the exposition of the Islamic Civilization Center in Uzbekistan.