Miras Maktoob

The Miras Maktoob Research Institute in Tehran is involved in the critical edition of Persian and Arabic manuscripts as well as academic research in the fields of text linguistics, text history, codicology, manuscript cataloguing, cultural heritage of Iran and the Iranian cultural area and the history of science.

Before the Islamic Revolution of 1978 / 1979, the Iran Cultural Foundation (Bunyād-i Farhang-i Īrān) and the book translation and publishing company (Bungāh-i Tarǧuma va Našr-i Kitāb) is known for its critical editions of historical texts.

After the revolution, historical texts were only occasionally published by state centres such as the University Publishing Centre (Markaz-i Našr-i Dānešgāhī). Miras Maktoob is also the only non-governmental institute that specialises in the critical edition of historical texts.

The Research Institute was founded in 1993 as the Publication Office for Written Cultural Heritage (Daftar-i Našr-i Mīrāṯ-i Maktūb) was founded to promote scientific research into the preservation of written cultural heritage. Since 2005 it has officially been called the Research Institute for Written Cultural Heritage (Muʾassis-i Pažūhišī-i Mīrāṯ-i Maktūb).

The publications appear in various series, divided into 16 subject areas, including Persian language and literature, Islamic scholarship, science and technology, history and geography, textual research, translations and catalogues of manuscripts, essays, commemorative publications and conference proceedings.

The majority of the texts that are analysed scientifically are written in Persian. Some texts published outside the Persian Language and Literature series are also of outstanding historical importance in their Persian version.

In the series "Work report of Islamic scholars and Iranians" (Kārnāma-i Dānišvarān-i Islām va Īrān), Miras Maktoob is also publishing the texts in an easier-to-understand version to familiarise people who are not involved in scientific research in this field, especially young people, with the historical texts.

Miras Maktoob also publishes three magazines:

• In the Mirror of the cultural heritage (Āyina-i Mīrāṯ), bibliographies, reviews and information on text research are published every two months.
• The Cultural assets report(Guzāriš-i Mīrāṯ) is a quarterly journal on textual criticism in codicology and Iranian studies.
• The Scientific heritage of Iran and Islam (Mīrāṯ-i ʿilmī-i Īrān va Islām) is published every two months on topics relating to the history of science and technology in the Islamic era.

Miras Maktoob has been involved in a number of conferences and co-operations with institutions in Iran and abroad, such as UNESCO, various cultural institutions in Turkey, the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Osaka University of Foreign Studies in Japan and Lahore University in Pakistan.

The e-book collection is available exclusively from Brill.