On December 7-9, 2002, the Ibn Sina Foundation, represented by its president Hamid Hadavimogaddam and research director Andrey Lukashev, together with the head of the Nur Microfilming Centre (India) Mahdi Hajepiri held a series of important meetings in St. Petersburg. The purpose was to establish cooperation with St. Petersburg universities and research centres in the area of conservation, digitalization and cataloguing of manuscripts.
On December 7, the management of the Ibn Sina Foundation met with the deputy research director for the RAS Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Tatiana Pan. The representatives of the Foundation and the Nur Microfilming Centre spoke about their work in Russia and suggested cooperation. Mahdi Hajepiri presented a special methodology for the conservation of manuscripts that can speed up the conservation process and reduce the costs. Upon hearing the proposals, the management and other representatives of the Institute expressed a great interest in cooperation.
Later that evening the leading researcher of the RAS IOM A. Khismatulin opened the screening of a documentary "The Dot" dedicated to Islamic calligraphy and spoke about cooperation between the Institute and Ibn Sina foundation. The screening was followed by the speech of by Mr. Lukashev, research director of the Ibn Sina Foundation. Mr Hajepiri informed the guests about the activities of the Nur Microfilming Centre and the cooperation opportunities it offered to Russian scientists. He spoke about their assistance in the storage, restoration and cataloguing of manuscripts as well as the publication of physical copies. Tatiana Pan went on to deliver closing remarks.
On December 8, the representatives of the Ibn Sina Foundation and the Nur Centre met with Denis Tsypkin, director for Highly Valued Funds of the Russian National Library, and Olga Yastrebova, researcher of the Russian National Library. The parties discussed cooperation of the RNL with the Ibn Sina Foundation and the Nur Microfilming Centre. E.Lyakhovitsky, head of the Federal Centre for Conservation of Library Collections, introduced the guests to the Centre’s activities.
On 9 December, the management of the Ibn Sina Foundation and the Nur Microfilming Centre met with representatives of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the St. Petersburg State University and the Gorky Library of St. Petersburg State University. Mr. Khadavimogaddam spoke about the activities of the Ibn Sina Foundation and the Nur Microfilming Centre. Mr Hajepiri delivered a presentation of the Nur Centre. The representatives of the Ibn Sina Foundation expressed their willingness to work with the University team on the project "Electronic publication and description of Persian manuscripts from the collection of the M.Gorky Library of St. Petersburg State University. Alexei Rodionov, first deputy dean of the faculty of Oriental Studies, agreed to support the project on behalf of the faculty. After the meeting, the representatives of the Ibn Sina Foundation and the Nur Center got acquainted with the University's library collection.
After the meetings held in St. Petersburg the parties were able to reach certain verbal agreements on cooperation. The Ibn Sina Foundation expressed its readiness to represent the interests of the Nur Centre in Russia.
