It is pleasing to know that the Miras Maktoob Research Center has recently honored Dr Arif Naushahi during a ceremony held on July 11, 2012 in Tehran as he carried out a pioneering research in Persian language, cataloguing books published in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. Dr Naushahi’s published works, based on Persian manuscripts, have been mainly devoted to the study of literature and Sufism, bibliography and the cataloging of manuscripts.
I met Dr Arif Noushahi, 57, last year in the Bedil library, Sharfabad, Karachi where he was brought by Prof Dr Moinuddin Aqeel to enlighten the research scholars in an informal interactive session. The research scholars who visited the library greatly benefited from him and asked him a barrage of questions regarding his latest research and about how to promote the culture of literary research.
I want to invite the publishers of Pakistan to print the volumes compiled by Dr Arif Naushahi cataloguing books published in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh containing information about many rare books on various aspects of Urdu literature. This treasure of information will undoubtedly benefit researchers, teachers and students. National Books Foundation and Majlis-e-Tariqi Adad, Lahore and state owned publishers should come forward to print the volumes. The volumes should also be adapted to other electronic media since we live in a ‘post-book’ era. I also request the web portals, especially those related to Urdu literature such as Iqbal Academy Lahore, Urdu Global Forum etc, to upload the volumes on the internet.
JAWED AHMED KHURSHEED
Karachi
