Conferences and Symposia

Among its activities the al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation organises conferences and symposia on various aspects of Islamic heritage. The first of such conferences was held at the Foundation headquarters in London (picture) on 30 November and 1 December 1991. Its subject was "The Significance of Islamic Manuscripts".

The second conference was held on the 4-5 December 1993 and was entitled "The Codicology of Islamic Manuscripts". Its third conference dealt with "The Conservation and Preservation of Islamic Manuscripts", held at the Foundation's London headquarters on 18-19 November 1995.

The aim of these conferences is to pool the accumulated experience and expertise of conservationists, librarians, administrations and technicians, working on manuscripts, from the Arab world, Europe, India, Iran and the USA. It is hoped that such conferences and symposia will further the efforts made by many organisations in the cause of cultural heritage of Islam. Thus the hidden and endangered repository of much of the wisdom, knowledge, literature and art of the Islamic tradition and heritage can be preserved and brought to light.

The al-Furqan fourth conference was also held at the Foundation's headquarters in London, on 29-30 November 1997. The topic was "Editing Islamic Manuscripts of Sciences".

In 2001 the Foundation held a symposium on the millennial anniversary of Thabit ibn Qurrah of Harran, on 2-3 November, in London. He edited and embellished several translated works in astronomy, medicine, Aljebra, music and on. That year was the anniversary of one of the greatest scholars of the civilisation of Islam, a non-Muslim whose contribution to Islamic history was recognised and acknowledged by the Abbasid Khalifah of the time. He was the translator into Arabic of major Greek works of science and philosophy. He also established a school that played an important role in the history of the civilisation of Islam.

Since its established in 1989, al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation has been involved in activities to encourage research and study into the field of Islamic manuscripts and Islamic civilisation. These conferences are a step on that very long and rich road.