News & Event

The Sultanate of Oman has succeeded in inscribing the Omani manuscript "Al-Nuniyah Al-Kubra" by the Omani navigator Ahmad ibn Majid on the UNESCO Memory of the World Program. This is the second Omani manuscript to be inscribed on this international program.

Al-Nuniyah Al-Kubra is one of the most important Omani manuscripts in the field of navigation and oceanography, documenting valuable information about ship movements and international shipping routes at the time. Scholars who preceded Ahmad ibn Majid divided the Earth into seven regions confined to the northern hemisphere, while the Al-Nuniyah Al-Kubra added seven more regions in the south. This manuscript is also a human legacy, as it presents realistic images of the communities encountered by the author and his crew during their voyages, as well as detailed descriptions of the marine environment and its creatures, such as whales, snakes, and coral reefs, in addition to ship mooring methods.

The Omani navigator Shihab Al-Din Ahmad ibn Majid ibn Muhammad Al-Saadi was born on the coast of Oman in 1421 and died in 1500. He made Ras Al-Hadd the base for his maritime activities. He developed the magnetic needle and compass, and left a scientific legacy represented by more than 40 works, including "Al-Nuniyah Al-Kubra" (The Great Nuniyah). A copy of the original manuscript of it is located at the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth. In 2021, UNESCO included the Omani navigator Ahmad ibn Majid in UNESCO's program for the fiftieth and centenary commemorations of historical events and influential figures in the world.

It is worth noting that the Memory of the World Program was established by UNESCO in 1992 with the aim of preserving and protecting documentary heritage from deterioration and loss as a result of social unrest, security instability, looting, illegal trade, etc., or as a result of some natural factors, such as heat and humidity, which this heritage may be exposed to over time. Documentary heritage includes stones, manuscripts, libraries, museums, national archives, audio and video discs, films, and photographs. In 2017, the Sultanate of Oman succeeded in including the first manuscript in the program, which is the manuscript “The Mine of Secrets in Oceanography” by its author, the sailor Nasser bin Ali Al-Khadouri.