Global Silkroad Library: A Prescript

Prescript
PROJECT TWO

GLOBAL SILKROAD LIBRARY

BY
PROF. DR. MESUT IDRIZ


Map: New Silkroad Countries

Name: Global Silkroad Library (GSL)

Location:
Main Campus in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China;
Branch Campuses: Central Asia (Kazakhstan), West Asia (Istanbul), South Asia (Islamabad), etc.

Philosophy:
Since the dream of reviving the ancient Silkroad has its priceless significance, the P.R. of China should consistently dream of being the global hub for education, research and development. In order to achieve this long term goal of being the P.R. of China as the state's desired statistics of international enrolment in this regard, a move to establish a comprehensive library with the proposed name of "GLOBAL SILKROAD LIBRARY" should be among the priority project.
Although the P.R. of China is to be praised for initiating various educational institutions the fact is that facilities which would allow for a 'comprehensive' education needs further impowerments. As a result, professors of international repute and qualification would wish to come to the P.R. of China to impart their schorlarly expertise. Yet, by far, the most dismal statistic in terms of education revolves around the fact that the P.R. of China (and indeed countries along the New Silkroad) does not prossess a library comparable to those found in the West. The P.R. of China do not possess vast resources in terms of manuscripts from the countries of New Silkroad, neither does it have the facilities for such.
In other words, without a comprehensive library housing unique resources, scholars will not be inclined to come to the P.R. of China and particularly to the intended project of the International/Global Silkroad University (ISU/GSU; refer to the PROJECT ONE) to lend their expertise; as a result students will not wish to be enrolled in the intended ISU/GSU without the prerequisite scholastic repute.
Referring to the Muslim history and civilisation, in which the major portion of the New Silkroad countries fall, the translation of scientific and intellectual works from other civilisations marked the initial steps towards acquiring knowledge and experience in the vast rank of sciences. In a short period of time, owing to the will and enthusiasm of the rulers, thinkers and students flocked to the institutions and libraries of the Muslim world. Some refer to that era as the era of the translation movement; some would even go as far to refer to it as the translation renaissance. Works describing the history of the Muslim civilisation, for example, were examined in detail. Researches and investigators during later periods interested in the history of the Islamic culture and civilisation, based their studies with regard to the rise or decline of Muslim culture and civilisation.
Most of the works written and translated during the Muslim rule of Umayyad era (661-750 CE) were concerned more with administration, politics, and commercial documentation rather than works of purely scientific nature. The foregoing books were necessary with regard to diplomatic relations between the Muslim rulers and their non-Muslim counterparts. Even those works which may be considered cultural, akin to the treatise written by Alexander to Aristotle, was translated for use by the military or government administration. Later periods, the so-called 'Golden Age' of Muslims refers primarily to the Abbasid era (750-1258 CE) because that was when original works and translations of some other important scientific books, namely in Alchemy, Astronomy and so on, from Greek into Arabic, were made at the behest of the Umayyad Crown Prince Khalid b. Yazid. Beginning with the earlier Abbasid caliphs, concerted translation efforts left a profound and extensive collection of historical, social and cultural works. This scientific movement lasted for more than two centuries.
Translation movement is the central point of any civilisation. A report on Arab Human Development in 2002, prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals working with the United Nations (UN), reveals some interesting facts. According to that report, the Arab world translates about 330 books annually , one-fifth the total that Greece translates. The total of translated books since Abbasid Muslim Caliph al-Ma'mun's time ( the 9th Century) is about 100,000, almost the avarage that Spain translates in one year. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Muslim world is lagging far behind the West in old spheres of learning.
Therefore, the Global Silkroad Library's (GSL) philosophy is to have strong impact in education, research and evelopment by having the most comprehesive library including the departments of digitalisation, translation and comprehensive sharing data-base.


GSL's First Step: Collection of Manuscripts

All the manuscripts in India and Pakistan numerically account as being among the largest in the world; however, the collections found in both locations only deal with the last 300 years, and the libraries themselves are in appaling dismal conditions. From the foregoing statistics, the P.R. of China could be ranked among the top collections and works through GSL. However, enthusiasm for such an effort is waned perhaps due to lack of funds, a lack of commitment, carelessness, or a lack of knowledge and human resource required for such an endeavour. Indeed, the P.R. of China does possess some invaluable manuscripts but the lack of any catalogues, let alone a comprehensive catalogue, truncates China's dreams of being of a center for eduation.
It is time to propose the establishment of 'Global Silkroad Library.' Such a library would not merely be a repository for Silkroad countries's manuscripts, but also manuscripts and invaluable works from the other great civilisations. The reason being that the P.R. of China is truly the melting pot of diferent religious traditions and civilisations. If the P.R. of China through International/Global Silkroad University succeeds in establishing such a library, it would truly be something unique. In order to establish such a library, a commitment from the government and corporations endorsed by the government is required. The first step would be to identify and collect manuscripts. The budget required for to purchase manuscripts will be large; and therefore the forgoing commitment is invaluable. A conservative budget of approximately $100-150 million US Dollar per annum for the next 10 years would be suffice to construct a competetive library, like "Global Silkroad Library."
One can not stop at merely establishing a library such as the one proposed above. Such a library should endeavour to preserve manuscripts, study them, digitise them, catalogue them, and edit them. Perhaps such a library should also comprise a museum, an IT facility to digitise the collection and allow for the publication and sale of certain material. Indeed such a library must comprise a publication untill capable of seeing the publication of scholastic materials from beginning to end. Yet by far the most important element for such a library; there must be a center for the translation of the invaluable, priceless works employing scholars from around the wolrd to work on studying and translating these works.


Appendix: Library Collections along the New Silkroad Countries
Azerbaijan: Baku - Academy of Sciences , 15,000 manuscripts.
India: Hyderabad - Oriental MSS Library and Research Institute, 16,963 manuscripts.
Patna - Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, 17,036 manuscripts.
Aligarh - Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University, 14,460 manuscripts.
Lucknow - Kutubkhana-I Nasiriyya, 30,000 manuscripts.
Rampur - Raza Library, 11,993 manuscripts.
Iran: Mashad - Astan-I Quds Razavi Library, 29,000 manuscripts.
Tehran - Gulistan Library, over 20,000 manuscripts.
- Tehran University Library, 14,203 manuscripts.
- Majlis-i Shura-i Islami Library, 16,000 manuscripts.
- Milli Library, 11,877 manuscripts.
Qom - Mar'ashi Najafi Library, 25,000 manuscripts.
Iraq: Baghdad - Manuscripts Library, 40,214 manuscripts (now largely destroyed due to the Gulf wars).
Pakistan: Islamabad - Iran Pakistan Institute of Persian Studies, 13,972 manuscripts.
Lahore - Punjab University Library, 13,000 manuscripts.
Saudi Arabia: Medina - Maktabat Al-Malik 'Abd al-'Aziz al-'Amna, 15,764 manuscripts.
Syria: Damascus - Asad National Library, 19,900 manuscripts.
Turkey: Ankara - Ankara Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi, 14,811 manuscripts.
Bursa - Bursa Yazma ve Eksi Basma Eserler Kütüphanesi, 13,875 manuscripts.
Istanbul - Beyazıt Devlet Kütüphanesi, 11,120 manuscripts.
- Istanbul Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi, 18,602 manuscripts.
- Suleymaniye Kütüphanesi, 65,571 manuscripts.
- Topkapı Saray Müzesi Kütüphanesi, 13,073 manuscripts.
- Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi, 16,381 manuscripts.
Uzbekistan: Tashkent - Abu Raihon Berunii Nomidegi Shargshunoslik Instituti, 18,594 manuscripts.