A delegation consisting of heads of religious confessions in Azerbaijan, led by the Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Board, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, is on a visit to the Vatican.
As part of the visit, the delegation familiarized itself with the Vatican Apostolic Library.
The Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, Don Mauro Mantovani, informed the delegation that the Vatican Apostolic Library, one of the oldest known libraries in the world, was founded in 1475. For centuries, texts of immense value—treasures of science, spirituality, literature, and art—have been collected and preserved here. The library houses 80,000 manuscripts, 2 million books, and Vatican coins from various historical periods. These materials are made available daily to scholars for the development, preservation, and promotion of culture. As it is a specialized library, and considering the importance of the materials preserved here due to their antiquity and content, the library is open only to qualified scholars, teachers, researchers, and, in special cases, students.
Currently, a project to digitize manuscripts is being implemented at the library with the help of numerous sponsors from various parts of the world. Within the framework of this project, thousands of manuscripts can be viewed online and free of charge. These manuscripts constitute the most valuable part of the materials preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library. In the coming years, the digitization of all 80,000 manuscripts—approximately 40 million pages—will be completed.
After the tour of the library, mutual commemorative gifts were presented.
It should be noted that a total of 60 ancient manuscripts related to Azerbaijan have been discovered in the Vatican Apostolic Library. These documents are very rare manuscripts covering the period from the 9th to the 18th centuries. Among them are rare manuscripts by Nizami Ganjavi, Mahammad Fuzuli, Imadaddin Nasimi, and other world-renowned Azerbaijani poets and thinkers, as well as valuable works in various fields of science by many medieval scholars previously unknown in our country.
Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade later also visited the Vatican Gardens and viewed the pomegranate tree planted there as a gift from Azerbaijan to the Vatican. This tree was planted on October 17, 2025, by the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva, as a symbol of friendship between the Holy See and the Republic of Azerbaijan within the framework of the anniversary year.
As a reminder, as part of the visit, an Iftar ceremony will also be organized in Rome today at the initiative of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Holy See and the Caucasus Muslims Board.