TEHRAN – A ceremony honoring supporters of handwritten manuscripts will be held in Tehran in February 2026 under the slogan “Yesterday’s Heritage, Today’s Thought.”

According to the National Library and Archives of Iran, after a hiatus of several years, the event will be jointly organized by the National Library and Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Library, Museum, and Document Center of the Iranian Parliament. The ceremony will recognize creators and contributors in the field of manuscripts.

Researchers, publishers, universities, cultural institutions, and other active organizations in the areas of text studies, manuscript collation, cataloging, and codicology are invited to submit their published works and major activities from 2018 to 2023 by September 22, 2025, to the conference secretariat.

According to organizers, the event will highlight the best promotional activities related to manuscripts, including policymaking, evaluation, binding, restoration, digitization, donation of private manuscript collections and documents to libraries, publication of journals on codicology and text research, teaching codicology and manuscript studies, distinguished publishers of corrected texts, manuscript and document collection, library services in the manuscript sector, and text editing across various fields such as history, geography, literature, science, Quranic studies, jurisprudence, philosophy, and bookbinding.

Additionally, the conference will review and select the best theoretical works on manuscripts and text correction, including books and theses on manuscript studies, text editing, librarianship, restoration, binding, preservation, and cataloging.

Iran is considered the cradle of handwritten manuscripts dating back several historical centuries. These manuscripts range from copies of the Holy Quran to poetry, scientific books, governmental and political documents, among many others. A significant number of these precious manuscripts are preserved in museums outside Iran, highlighting their global cultural and historical importance.

AM