Isfahan heritage records undergo digital preservation

TEHRAN - Isfahan’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department has begun digitizing around 2,000 documents and records held by the province’s cultural heritage documentation center, an official said on Saturday.

Seyyed Rouhollah Seyyed al-Asgari, the department’s deputy for cultural heritage, said the first batch of about 2,000 documents and other records had been transferred to the Isfahan branch of the National Library and Archives of Iran for digitization.

The initiative is intended to protect the information contained in the records from potential damage while expanding access to them for researchers, he said, according to Iran’s IRIB news agency.

The cultural heritage documentation center and Library of Isfahan is considered a major documentary repository in the field of cultural heritage, holding substantial records of restoration projects, conservation measures and studies conducted over past decades, Seyyed al-Asgari said.

Some of the collection consists of studies and documentation prepared by international companies and groups that worked in Iran during different periods, the official said.

He added that priority in the first phase had been given to restoration-related records, including documentation of conservation work, historical photographs and architectural drawings. Some of the maps and documents date to the 1970s and 1980s and provide information on restoration projects and interventions carried out on Isfahan’s historic buildings.

Many records concerning restoration projects are preserved at the center, he said, adding that documentation of different restoration phases of sites such as Chehel Sotoun is available to contractors, supervisors, specialists and researchers working on conservation projects.

Such records can provide information on past restoration methods and the treatment of wooden structures, architectural decorations and other components of historic buildings, serving as references for future conservation studies and interventions, Seyyed al-Asgari said.

“The center’s library also contains about 7,540 books, some of which are rare and have been published in very limited numbers in Iran. Students and researchers regularly consult the library and documentation center for specialized studies.”

Seyyed al-Asgari also referred to an earlier digitization project carried out in cooperation with the Isfahan municipality’s organization for renovation and urban improvement. Nearly 8,000 photographic records related to previous restoration projects were scanned and digitized over several months, he said.

The current project will eventually cover additional groups of documents, including studies and records produced by international teams working in Isfahan. In later phases, efforts will focus in particular on documenting studies conducted by Italian groups active in the city and transferring them to the National Library and Archives Organization for digital preservation.

One of the main objectives of the cooperation is to broaden researchers’ access to the documentary resources, Seyyed al-Asgari said. At present, researchers often have to travel to Isfahan to consult many of the records, whereas placing digitized materials on a national platform could allow researchers across Iran to access them.

Isfahan, the capital of the central Iranian province of the same name, has long been a major center of Iranian cultural heritage. The city flourished particularly from the 9th to the 18th centuries and became the capital of Safavid Iran under Shah Abbas I in the late 16th century.

Often associated with the Persian saying “Isfahan nesf-e-jahan” (“Isfahan is half the world”), the city is renowned for its historic mosques, bazaars, gardens, bridges and other architectural monuments.