site.btaThird Manuscript from National Library's Collections Inscribed on UNESCO Memory of the World Register

A 16th-century transcript of Spiritual Couplets (Masnavi–yi ma‘navi) by Sufi poet and philosopher Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (popularly known in Persian as Mawlānā, and in English as Rumi) has been inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, the St St Cyril and Methodius National Library said Friday. This is the third manuscript from the National Library's collections added to the Register, after the Enina Apostle of the 11th century and the Boril Synodic from the late 14th century (inscribed in 2011 and 2017, respectively).

The successful finalization of the inscription procedure was marked with a roundtable and a solemn ceremony in Türkiye's Konya on September 28. That is where the Persian poet spent most of his life. The date of the inscription coincides with Rumi's 750th death anniversary, the National Library said.

Rumi's complete works were submitted jointly by Bulgaria, Germany, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tajikistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, UNESCO said in a press release about the collections added to the Memory of the World Register this year.