TEHRAN -- Iran has recently prepared two books for registration on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register list.

“At-Tafhim” written by Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-1048 CE) and “Khamseh” composed by Nezami Ganjavi (c. 1141-1209 CE) will be submitted to UNESCO to be inscribed on the list, member of the Iranian National Committee for Memory of the World, Ali Khakpur, told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
“Kitab at-Tafhim Li-Awa’ili Sina’at at-Tanjim” (“Book of Instructions in the Elements of the Art of Astrology”) is one of the books, which was written in 1029 by Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-1048 CE), a Persian scholar and scientist, and one of the most learned men of his age and an outstanding intellectual figure.
The book, commonly known as “At-Tafhim”, is a self-teaching guide for astronomy which has been arranged in the Q&A style. The oldest version of the book, which has been inscribed by Mohammad ibn Jurabi in 1143 CE, is kept in the Majlis Library, Museum, and Documentation Center.
The other work is “Khamseh” (“The Quintuplet”) composed by Nezami Ganjavi (c. 1141-1209 CE), the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic.
Nezami’s reputation rests on his “Khamseh” which is a pentalogy of poems written in Masnavi verse form (rhymed couplets) and totaling 30,000 couplets.
These five poems include the didactic work Makhzan ol-Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries), three traditional love stories of Khosrow and Shirin, Leili and Majnun, and Haft Paykar, and the Eskandar-nameh, which records the adventures of Alexander the Great.
There are various versions of “Khamseh” in Iranian libraries, but the two versions kept at the Central Library of the University of Tehran and the library of the Shahid Motahhari School and Mosque in Tehran will be introduced for UNESCO.
The documents compiled for the two books are currently being rendered into English and they should be submitted to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Secretariat until March 31, 2010.
A collection of Iranian documents dating back to the Safavid era was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register list in 2009.
In addition, the Shahnameh of Baysunqur, one of three ancient copies of Ferdowsi’s epic masterpiece, and the Endowment Deed of Rab-e Rashidi are two other Iranian works, which were registered on the list in 2007.
Photo: Khosrow II in front of Shirin’s palace in an illustration from a late 15th century Persian manuscript of the Khamseh by Nezami (The Keir Collection, Ham, Richmond, England)