India has handed over a vast collection of nearly ten million Persian-language documents to Iran, a move being viewed as a major contribution to historical and academic research. The archive reflects around 800 years of Indian history from a period when Persian served as a key language of administration, diplomacy, and scholarship across the subcontinent.
The documents were sourced from libraries and archives across India, many of which had remained inaccessible or poorly preserved for decades due to humidity, insects, and neglect. The extensive preservation effort was led by Dr Mehdi Khwajapiri, founder of the Noor International Microfilm Center, who spent nearly 40 years travelling across India to identify, document, and digitally preserve these rare manuscripts.
According to those involved, around 100,000 manuscripts now survive only in digital microfilm form, as their original physical copies have deteriorated beyond recovery. The entire collection has been transferred to Iran’s Islamic World Science and Technology Citation and Monitoring Institute (ISC) for academic use.
Researchers say the material will help Iran fill key gaps in its historical record, including insights into Indo-Iranian political, cultural, and trade relations, and provide valuable primary sources for the study of the Persian-speaking world across South Asia.
