Archives abroad: Azerbaijan receives ancient manuscripts from Vatican

The Azerbaijani government has received copies of 60 rare medieval manuscripts from the Vatican's secret archives.

Farid Alakbarli, a department head at Baku's Institute of Manuscripts, told that the documents - discovered by Azerbaijani scholars two months ago - include works by scientists and poets such as Nizami, Fuzuli, Nasimi, Maragayi, and Nasraddin Tusi. Vatican scanned the manuscripts and put them on CDs for Azerbaijani officials. Those written in Arabic and Persian will be transliterated into the Latin script, he added.

Alakbarli said the original manuscripts are kept in the Vatican Archive's Iranian and Turkish depositories, as there is no specific depository for Azerbaijan.

The manuscripts from the Vatican library also contain written correspondence between Vatican popes and the rulers of territories that today are part of Azerbaijan. They also include a volume of stories in Turkish dating from the 15th century.

The manuscripts will enable historians to study Azerbaijan's history and culture more deeply, Alakbarli added.