Professor Ramazan Şeşen was the first scholar to receive the Al-Furqān Foundation’s Award in recognition of his important work in the study of Islamic history, and particularly for his contribution to the cataloguing of manuscripts in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. The award had been established by a decision of the Foundation's Board of Experts in 1996 to recognise exceptional work in the study and/or cataloguing of Islamic manuscripts. The award was presented to Professor Şeşen by the Chairman of Al-Furqan, H.E. Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, on 11th May 2000.
Professor Şeşen has headed the Department of Manuscripts at the International Research Center for Islamic Culture and Art (IRCICA) in Istanbul since 1982.
In his address at the award ceremony, Professor Şeşen spoke of the importance of the book in Islamic civilisation, as being a medium for the transmission of knowledge and as an object of art, and discussed the historical circumstances that have led to the survival of so many Islamic manuscripts to the present day.