Abu Dhabi, Aug 26th, 2010 (WAM) -- H.H General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces attended on Wednesday a lecture on the priceless Islamic manuscripts in the legacy of al-Andalus, which was delivered by Prof. Ada Romero Sanchez, an expert on Arabic, Islamic and Semitic studies and Andalusian history at the University of Granada.
The lecture hosted at the Ramadan Majlis of Sheikh Mohammed was also attended by Crown Prince of Umm Al Qaiwain H.H. Sheikh Rashid Bin Saud Al Mualla. FNC Speaker Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Ghurair Duke of York Prince Andrew, H.H Sheikh Suroor bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, a number of other Sheikhs, ministers, senior officials, ambassadors, academics and a large number of gusts also attended the lecture. Sanchez pointed out that despite of relentless attacks on it, the Islamic civilization continued to live through centuries due to its inner potentials as the it is a civilization that is built on the principles of the welfare of humanity. She added that the task of history is that of recording the facts, not of obliterating them, and the recording of the history of Islam should provide a vivid picture of the lives of Muslims during the 14 centuries, conveying to the people the amazing and wonderful power of the Islamic religion. She said that all the talk about the history of Islam in Spain only provide an introduction to the writing of it, as most of that history still remains unknown even to specialists and students due to the acts carried out by the Inquisition including lies, slander, falsification, distortion and the burning of valuable manuscripts and books written by Muslims in Andalusia. She said that research in the history of Andalusia is the way to see the influence of Islam on that nation and its people in particular. For this it is imperative to save the remaining legacy of Islam in Andalusia as well asthe priceless manuscripts that will help to re-discover al-Andalus. She also noted the difficulty faced by workers in the field of manuscripts, particularly in conservation and restoration as it is written in Arabic and are scattered in many parts of the world such as Timbuktu, Mali's capital where there are about 2500 important Andalusian manuscripts and in Madrid, which houses around 1900 manuscripts, out of which only 70 manuscripts are indexed. Sanchez, in her wide-ranging lecture on the topic, also shed light on the deliberate attempts in the west to distort the rich heritage of Islam and its prime quality of tolerance.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2010.
