Signing a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia and the National Encyclopedia Institute of Tajikistan

7/20/2025 09:43

A memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia (CGIE) and the National Encyclopedia Institute of Tajikistan in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

CGIE: This agreement followed an official invitation from the State Institute of the National Encyclopedia of Tajikistan and a four-day visit by a delegation from CGIE, including Muḥammad J ͑afarī Qanawātī (member of the Supreme Scientific Council and director of the Encyclopedia of Iranian Folk Culture), Kiānoush Kīānī Haft lang (member of the Supreme Scientific Council and CGIE’s international affairs advisor) and ʿAlī Mūsavī Bojnurdī (executive deputy director of CGIE).

During the first program of this trip, the delegation visited the National Encyclopedia of Tajikistan, toured its various departments, and held talks with its managers and experts. Nūr-Muḥammad Amīrshāhī, head of the National Encyclopedia of Tajikistan, discussed the encyclopedia’s situation since the Soviet era and the challenges of encyclopedic writing at that time. He also shared his views on the ancestral (Persian) script, Ferdowsi’s Shāh-nāmeh and the Sāmānīd dynasty. He noted that the institute prepares both general and specialized encyclopedias in various fields, from natural to social sciences, and expressed hope that, together with the experts and scholars at CGIE, they could collect and publish their shared Persian civilization and culture.

Kīānī Haft lang stated that the purpose of the trip was to sign a memorandum of cooperation between the two centers, which would serve as a key to accessing the scientific and cultural treasures of both friendly countries and as a bridge to bring the two nations closer together, hoping it would mark the beginning of extensive scientific collaboration.

The Iranian delegation also visited the Institute of Language and Literature, part of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, attending a meeting with Shamsuddīn Muḥammadī (deputy director of the institute) and other scholars. After brief speeches given by Muḥammadī, Kīānī Haft lang and some of the scholars present at the meeting, Mūsavī Bojnurdī introduced CGIE and proposed two collaborations: first, a joint work to introduce contemporary Iranian scientific figures to Tajiks and vice versa, due to the limited awareness of such figures in Tajikistan; second, launching a joint specialized journal for literary and linguistic research on Khorāsān and Transoxiana, both welcomed by the attendees.

The delegation also paid a visit to the Manuscript Heritage Center (also under the Academy of Sciences), where some manuscripts on display were visited. A meeting was held afterwards with the Center’s managers, including Raḥmat-Karim Davlat, the director.

Other parts of the trip included a visit to the National Library of Tajikistan and meetings with its managers, including Salīma Rajabzādeh (first deputy director). The final program was a meeting with Farangīs Sharīfzādeh, director of the Institute of Language and Literature, and a visit to the house-museum of Ṣadriddin ʿAini, one of the greatest Persian-Tajik writers of the early 20th century.

At the end of this meeting, a memorandum of cooperation was signed, and several books published by CGIE were gifted to the Tajik encyclopedia institution.