A series of meetings with academic institutes and universities was held on April 12th.
Firstly, the Rector visited Faizkhanov Readings and received Al Fakhr Order from the Russian Council of Muftis.
However, the ceremony was not the only item in the itinerary. Dr. Gafurov visited the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.
The guests from Kazan were able to see some of the manuscripts. A significant portion of the Institute’s collection consists of the manuscripts that were transferred from Kazan University in 1855.
The sides agreed to establish a joint department at the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies of KFU. Experts from Saint-Petersburg will visit regularly to read lectures and hold other events in Middle Eastern and Far Eastern studies. Director of the IOM, Irina Popova, is one of the prominent Russian sinologists.
Unsurprisingly, a visit to State Hermitage was also very fruitful. Director Mikhail Piotrovsky showed the museum’s restoration workshops and offered to initiate relevant programs for KFU. Students from Kazan will now be able to conduct internships here.
State Hermitage also plans to establish an archaeological depository in Kazan. Federal Ministry of Culture proposed to build a storage facility for archaeological findings from across the Volga-Ural region (including the already deposited findings).
The upcoming Christian Frahn Award was also discussed. Dr. Frahn himself was a multifaceted expert in Arabic studies and Russian history and an avid numismatist, and this will be taken into consideration for the contest rules.
Rector Gafurov also held talks with Georgy Vilinbakhov, Chairman of the Heraldic Council of the President of Russian Federation. A decision was made to hold a conference on the heraldry of Turkic peoples and Tatarstan in Kazan.