The conserved Documents and Digital Images of Archival Rare Documents Handed Over to Telangana State Archives

Hyderabad : A major milestone has been achieved in the preservation of India’s Persian documentary heritage, with  17,00,000  pages digitised and 470,000 Persian documents conserved and restored under a joint initiative of the Noor International Microfilm Center (NIMC), affiliated with the Cultural Counsellorship of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, New Delhi, and the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute.

Coinciding with the visit of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran to India for the BRICS Summit, another important stage of this cultural collaboration has been completed .In the latest phase of the project, digital images of 308122  Persian documents pertaining to Manuscripts and Awarjah Documents along with five volumes of draft English catalogues of Shah jahani Documents  were handed over to the Telangana State Archives today .

The initiative was undertaken under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2022 and covers the identification, conservation, restoration, cataloguing and digitisation of historical Persian records preserved at the Telangana State Archives.

Dr. Zareena Parveen, Director, Telangana State Archives and Research Institute, said that the services rendered by the Noor International Microfilm Center had been a “God-sent opportunity” for the State Archives, which holds millions of valuable historical records, many of them in ornamental Persian, requiring urgent conservation and digitisation for the benefit of future generations. She described both the conservation and digitisation work undertaken by Noor International Microfilm Center as remarkable. She further stated that a three-month grace period has been granted to Noor International Microfilm Center to complete the remaining work and hand over the mammoth project outputs in phases, including the completion of the remaining cataloguing work.

The Telangana State Archives houses approximately 43 million historical documents, including a major collection of approximately 33 million Persian documents. These records are of exceptional importance for research into the history of the Deccan, particularly the Bahmani, Adil Shahi, Qutb Shahi, Mughal and Asaf Jahi periods.

The project goes beyond physical preservation. Persian served for centuries as a major language of administration, scholarship, culture and intellectual exchange across the Indian subcontinent. The conservation and digitisation of these records therefore help safeguard tangible evidence of the historical and cultural interactions between Iran and India and make this shared civilizational heritage available to future generations and researchers.

Dr. Mehdi Khajeh Piri, Director of the Noor International Microfilm Center, said that the millions of Persian manuscripts and documents preserved in India constitute the written memory of the historical coexistence of the two civilizations. He expressed satisfaction that the collaboration with the Telangana State Archives had helped rescue and restore a significant portion of this heritage from deterioration and possible loss while ensuring its long-term preservation through digitisation.

Dr. Khajeh Piri also expressed appreciation for the cooperation of Dr. Zareena Parveen and her colleagues. He particularly acknowledged Dr. Parveen’s scholarly guidance and specialist advice, including her contribution to the preparation of the catalogue of 5,000 documents dating from the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

The latest achievement marks another significant step in the ongoing cultural cooperation between Iran and India and in preserving the shared documentary heritage of the two countries.