The inaugural session of the seminar was held at Phanidhar Dutta Seminar Hall of Gauhati University. Dr Rakibuddin Ahmad, while welcoming the delegates presented a profile of the Departments of Arabic and Persian of GU and stressed upon the importance of Arabic and Persian studies in the region.
The Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University Prof OK Medhi released the Souvenir brought out on the occasion and delivered his inaugural address. Prof Medhi appreciated the importance of Arabic and Persian studies in the development of world civilisations. He said that Arabs and Persians significantly contributed to the discipline of Chemistry originally known as Al Chemiya and Omar Khayyam was a household name in our society. He also observed that in modern times, Indo-Iran and Arab relations were being promoted through oil, music and film.
North East has been a seat of Arabic and Persian studies since the last six decades and has tremendous potentialities to undertake research translations in the universities and colleges of the region to promote peace in civil society.
Dr Shabi Ahmad of ICHR graced the inaugural session as chief guest and presented an overview of Indo-Arab-Iran relations which evolved out of several hundred years of historical process. He rightly pointed out that relation among these countries in the ancient time, was trade-based, but after the advent of Islam in India, Indo-Arab-Iran relations assumed literary and cultural dimensions. Perso-Arabic scholarships were developed in India, Sufism became an important point of contact between the people of South Asia and the tenet of Haj in Islam brought the Indian Muslims in close contact with the Islamic world. Dr. Ahmad rightly pointed out that during the Indian freedom movement, our freedom fighters used to take refugee in Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Professor Gulshan Dietl from the Centre of West Asian and African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi was the guest of honour and delivered the keynote address. She claimed that from North East India one can see as far as Istanbul, the door way to Europe. The seminar thus, covered a considerable expanse of time and space in which great civilisations flourished in India, Iran, Mesopotamia and Egypt which reformed and refined human life in Asia. The keynote speaker drew the attention of the learned audience to the three great empires of medieval and early modern periods of Asian history, namely the Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman empires. These empires were not only epicentre of power and politics but also hub of trade, commerce, literature, culture and religion.
The Silk Route facilitated trade and commerce on one hand and transmitted stories, ideas, philosophy and religions on the other. Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism evolved in West and South Asia and fostered common links among the people of Asia. Professor Gulshan Dietl augured that the present seminar would open new vistas of knowledge and understanding in its academic and business sessions.
Dr Abolghasem Esmaelpour, an eminent Iranologist from the Department of Ancient Languages of Iran, Shahid Behishti University, Tehran, participated in the seminar as a special guest and spoke at length on the linguistic affinities between ancient India and Iran. He referred to the inscription of Bughas Koi in Turkey in which the two nations swore upon the Indo-Iranian deity, Mitra Varuna and signed a treaty of peace that they would not wage war against each other. Mitra Varuna was not two Gods but one, whom both the Iranians and the Indians worshipped in the past. The entire region from the Bosphorus to the Brahamputra has many common cultural patterns. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam began to manifest themselves in Sufism and the poets of Persia have venerated both Hinduism and Islam in their poetry.
Dr Reza Mostafavi Sabzvari, Professor of eminence from Allama Tabatabai University, Tehran conveyed the greetings and good wishes of the Iranian academic fraternity to the Vice Chancellor, teachers and students of Gauhati University. He emphasised upon the monumental work of Al Beruni, Malal Hind that for the first time in the annals of Islamic history, Al Beruni introduced Indian culture and heritage to the people of Arabia and Iran. He also appreciated the efforts of Dr Narges Jaberi Nasab, a faculty in the Islamic Azad University at Tehran for co-ordinating the works of the seminar in Iran and enabling the Iranian delegates to participate in the conference. The grand finale of the inaugural session was the Zikr programme devotionally and meticulously staged by the students of the Departments of Arabic and Persian, Gauhati University. The vote of thanks was proposed by Prof. Raina Khanum Majumdar.
Two post lunch parallel academic sessions were held in the Department of Arabic and Phanidhar Dutta Seminar Hall of GU wherein 20 papers in Arabic, English and Persian were presented. The papers covered various aspects of west Asian studies, Indo-Arab and Iranian studies. The following day, the Persian academic session was held in the conference room of the Greenwood Resorts Pvt Ltd, Khanapara. The valedictory session was held in Emerald Hotel, Kaziranga.