Dr. Ali Akbar Wilayati, Ex-Foreign Minister of Islamic Republic of Iran releases Nahjul Balagha at AMU

ALIGARH December 21: Dr. Ali Akbar Wilayati, Ex-Foreign Minister of Islamic Republic of Iran today released the publication of about one thousand year old manuscript called ‘Nahjul Balagha’ at the concluding function of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

The rarest manuscript that consists of letters, speeches and aphorism of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliphate of Islam has been published as a joint venture of AMU and Iran.

Dr. Wilayati announced that the Urdu, Hindi and English versions of this oldest manuscript will be published by the Aligarh Muslim University and the Government of Iran will provide all the financial support.

He said that India and Iran are two ancient nations with long history of cultural relations. He said that today his dream to attend a function of this great institution of Islamic values has come true. He hoped Iran and the Aligarh Muslim University will come closer in the field of education and research.

Dr. Ali Akbar Wilayati has served as the Foreign Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1997. Currently he is an advisor in international affairs to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran. He is a medical graduate from John Hopkins University, USA and has about 68 books and 150 articles to his credit.

Addressing the two-day National Seminar on ‘Nahjul Balagha and Human Rights’, Prof. Ali Mohammad Naqvi, Dean, Faculty of Theology said that the first importance of Nahjul Balagha is that it is the Kalam and saying of Hazrat Ali, one of the greatest personalities of human history, who is the converging point of all Muslims and this is a masterpiece of Arabic literature and treasure of Islamic spirituality.

Welcoming the delegates, Prof. Shabahat Husain, Librarian-in-charge said Maulana Azad Library of this University is regarded one of the major libraries of the world with more than 1.5 million printed books, e-books and other documents.

He said during the last three years a lot of changes have been brought into the Library which includes renovation of the reading rooms and cultural hall, establishment of Digital Resource Centre, digitization of manuscripts and installation of automatic security Gate (3M System) for books.

On this occasion, Dr. Karim Najafi, Cultural Counselor, Iran Cultural House, Dr. Hujjatul Islam Khamoshi, Dr. Ali Askari also addressed the inaugural function.

Prof. M. Saleemuddin, former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University presided over the function. The Iran Cultural House, New Delhi presented a pack of 3000 Persian manuscripts and CDs to Maulana Azad Library.

Dr. Wilayati and Prof. M. Salemuddin also released another two books, one of which “Bahr-e-Zakhkhar” is a rare Tazkira of Sufis in Persian language.