TEHRAN -- An exhibition of Persian manuscripts will be opened at the Scientific Research Institute of Old Manuscripts of Matenadaran in Yerevan from April 14 to 20.

A total of 500 Persian manuscripts preserved in the Matenadaran Museum will go on display during the exhibition.
On April 7, the fourth volume of “The Persian Decrees of Matenedaran” series by Kristine Kostikyan was also unveiled at the museum during a ceremony that was attended by several Iranian and Armenian officials.
Holding manuscript exhibit shows that Iranians and Armenians care about the preservation of their scientific achievements since ancient times and also for the reading of books, mentioned Armenian Minister of Education and Science Spartak Seyranyan during the event.
Persian manuscripts are carefully preserved at the museum as are Armenian documents kept by Iranians at the Vank church in Isfahan, Madenataran director Hrachya Tamrazian told at the ceremony.
Iran’s cultural attaché in Yerevan Mohammadreza Shakiba said during the ceremony that interchanges between civilizations are possible through books and such an exhibition is an epitome of friendship between the two countries.
In 1950, the first volume of a series entitled “The Persian Documents of Matenadaran” was published, which contained the Persian-language decrees of the 15th-16th centuries. They were deciphered, studied, translated into Armenian and annotated by Hakob Papazyan.
In 1968, in the same three-language version (Persian, Armenian and Russian), H. Papazyan published a second series of the documents, which included the estate certificates of the 14th-16th centuries. The following volume was again devoted to decrees and included 43 documents issued in 1601-1650.
It is planned to prepare and publish also all decrees from the second half of the 17th to the 18th and 19th centuries as well as the estate certificates of the 14th-16th centuries.
Photo: A page from a historical manuscript version of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh