Within the framework of the 216th meeting of the UNESCO Executive Board, held on May 10-24, two documents put forward by Uzbekistan were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Established by UNESCO in 1992, the Memory of the World Register is a program aimed at preventing the irreversible loss, preserving and making available to the public documents or sets of documents of significant and enduring value, whether on paper, in audiovisual, digital or electronic form, or in any other format. To date, the total number of collections included in the register has reached 494. At the 216th meeting of the Executive Committee of the organization, 64 sets of documents were adopted.
Among the documents provided by Uzbekistan are a collection of archives of the Kushbegin administration of the Bukhara Emirate and a complete collection of works by Mavlono, a poet, philosopher, scientist and theologian of the 13th century.
The collection of archives of the Kushbegin administration of the Bukhara Emirate is the largest archive of the rulers of Central Asia in Bukhara. It contains documents reflecting the historical events that took place on the territory of present Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and partly Afghanistan for over 200 years. The archive also contains important information about the diplomatic relations of the Emirate of Bukhara with Russia, Great Britain, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Japan, the USA, as well as the Khiva and Kokand khanates. Currently, the collection, stored in the Central State Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan, consists of about 9.5 thousand folders and about 200 thousand individual documents written in Arabic, Persian, Uzbek, Chagatai, Russian and other languages.
“Mavlono Kulliyati” is a complete collection of works by the poet, philosopher, scholar and theologian Mavlono Jaloliddin Rumi, who was considered one of the great Sufi teachers who lived in the 13th century.
The collection includes the complete works of the philosopher - "Masnavi", "Diwan-e Shams", "Fihe ma fih" ("Competitions"), Majales-i Sab'a ("Seven Sermons"), Maktubat ("Letters") . All of Mavlono's works are written in Persian, but some of them also contain Arabic, Turkish and Greek expressions. They have been translated into many languages in thousands of handwritten copies around the world. These works are of great scientific importance for the study of the history and culture of the peoples of the eastern countries.
These collections of documents are of great importance for the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. First of all, the titles of works related to Uzbekistan and information about them were immortalized at the international level. In addition, their inclusion in the register will serve to increase the popularity of the above collections in the world, including in terms of the number of scientific studies on them.
Uzbekistan became a member of UNESCO back in 1993. The Convention of the organization on Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage was ratified by Uzbekistan on 22 December 1995. So far, Ichan Kala, which is the inner town located in Khiva, city of Samarkand as “Crossroad of Cultures”, The Historic Center of Bukhara, Historic Center of Shakhrisabz, the Western Tian-Shan mountains, historical centers of Bukhara, Shakhrisabz and Chatkal Biosphere have been included to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a part of the agreement.