Azernews.Az

BAKU – 85 documents on Azerbaijan’s history have been found among the 700 papers researched in the Vatican’s secret archives, an Azerbaijani scholar has said.

Farid Alakbarli, who heads a department at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Institute of Manuscripts, told Academy members on Wednesday that the documents include ones about the Caucasus Albania, which existed on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan, in Italian, Greek, French, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Mongolian and other languages. The papers, which mainly cover the period from the 10th to the 20th century, contain secret correspondence of Azerbaijan’s Middle Age rulers, including Ilkhani, Sefevi, Garamanly, Afshar, and Gajar, with the Roman Popes; documents related to Vatican’s religious activity and propaganda in Azerbaijan.

Also, 60 ancient manuscripts by Azerbaijanis have been discovered at Vatican’s Apostolic Library. The discoveries are books written in the Middle Ages in Azeri (Turkish), Persian and Arabic.

The Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences intends to sign an agreement with the Vatican’s representation in the country to acquire the books.

According to Alakbarli, the Institute of Manuscripts, a major depositary of valuable manuscripts in the world, contains over 40,000 documents, including 11,000 ancient manuscripts.