Members of the international scientific expedition “In the footsteps of Alisher Navoi” organized a trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Uzbekistan scientists also participated in it. The purpose of the trip was to get acquainted with Iran’s higher education, scientific, and cultural centers, the places where Alisher Navoi set foot, and to search and study sources and manuscripts relating to the life and work of the great enlightener.

During the trip, the scientists visited the National Library and Archive of Iran, located in Tehran. The manuscript of the first divan “Badoe ul-Bidaya” by Navoi, rewritten in 1501, is kept here. The Uzbek scientist Saidbek Boltabayev opened this manuscript in 2021. Several copies of “Badoe ul-Bidaya” are known to science, and this, the eighth, was published during Navoi’s lifetime.

The contents of this manuscript are still little known. Its detailed study can lead Navoi scholars to discoveries.

At a meeting with the leadership of the National Library and Archive of Iran, Uzbekistan scientists got familiar with the original of Alisher Navoi’s divan from the library’s manuscript collection. Scientists announced their intention to prepare and publish a facsimile of this manuscript. Library representatives supported this idea and noted that such good deeds would strengthen mutual cultural ties.

Aftondil ERKINOV,

Professor of the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan, Doctor of Philology.

UzA