Universiti Malaya proudly announces the establishment of the UNESCO Chair on Manuscript Heritage of the Silk Road, with Dr. Mehdi Soltanzadeh serving as Chairholder. This prestigious recognition places Universiti Malaya within the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, UNESCO’s global network of more than 1,100 Chairs and university networks across over 130 countries dedicated to advancing research, education, and international cooperation.
The UNESCO Chair will serve as a regional platform for research, teaching, training, community engagement, and international collaboration in the field of manuscript heritage. Through this initiative, Malaysia, via Universiti Malaya, will act as a regional coordinating centre for efforts to preserve, document, digitise, and promote manuscripts connected to the Silk Road and the historical intellectual exchanges between the Malay World and other civilisations.
The Chair will lead the development of a digital repository of manuscripts, establish documentation and metadata standards, coordinate collaborative research, and provide postgraduate training in manuscript studies. It will also facilitate field surveys across libraries, museums, and archives while hosting international knowledge exchange with partners worldwide.
As part of UNESCO’s interdisciplinary network of over 10,000 academics and researchers, the Chair will strengthen Universiti Malaya’s global engagement, and promote the principles of Open Science and knowledge sharing. By integrating cultural heritage preservation with digital innovation, the UNESCO Chair on Manuscript Heritage of the Silk Road positions Universiti Malaya and Malaysia as a regional centre of excellence for manuscript studies and UNESCO-related cultural cooperation.