Oman Memory Center is a model for non-profit scientific and cultural institutions

Muscat: The Oman Memory Center is a model for non-profit scientific and cultural institutions in the Sultanate of Oman. It is concerned with monitoring the Omani memory in the diversity of its tributaries, and containing the Omani intellectual achievement in its various capacities.

The first center was established in the year 1424 AH / 2004 , and it was officially declared in Muharram 1435 AH / December 2013. Its headquarters are in the Muscat Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, and it has been registered with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth.

The Oman Memory Center has four main pillars on which its orientations are based, and on which all its activities and services are based, as it accommodates all the cultural vessels that serve the center. Such as manuscripts, documents, photographs, periodicals, coins, antiquities, films, oral history, and the like. It also seeks to encompass all the steps and stages required to monitor memory.

These pillars are represented in: research, collection, recording, and documentation (including field research for collecting documents and manuscripts, oral interviews, and collecting materials supporting the project), data preservation and indexing (including: indexing in all its forms, library classification, maintenance and restoration, and digital preservation), and achieving Heritage, studies and publishing (including: printing and publishing, marketing, publicity and advertising), digital and media services and communication (including: information services through the website and communication networks, databases and digital projects, seminars and conferences, workshops and training courses, and public relations).

The memory of the flags, and under the field of the flags, everything related to it is included; Such as scholars, writers, politicians, leaders and craftsmen. The field also includes non-Omani figures who had an impact on the Omani arena. Also, the memory of time, and this field relies heavily on the timeline of the sequence of events, or what the ancients knew as “annals” or “annal history”.

The fields also included: the memory of the place under which the broad region to which Oman belongs, the cultural influence and its historical extension in some eras, the Omani capitals throughout history, and the large and small Omani cities, until we get to the details of the places of landmarks and scenes.

In addition to: the memory of terms and concepts, and it is concerned with the terminology used by jurists in particular, and authors in general, by referring to the entries of terminology that are more accurate and disciplined. Because they are agreed terms, while expressions of concepts differ from one writer to another.

The memory of the expressions of civilization, which means all the expressions used by the Omani man in his public life, such as food, drink, clothing, housing, a vehicle and everything related to it, animals and plants, crafts and industries and the materials used in them, and everything related to people’s social, economic, administrative and political life. The fields also include the memory of sciences and knowledge: this field is closely related to what has become known to contemporary scholars as the history of science, and it is a field concerned with monitoring the emergence and development of sciences, and is based on describing and evaluating the movement of science through its successive historical stages.

Finally, the memory of sources and references: this field is like a bibliographical survey of every reference that feeds the Omani memory, whether small or large, however many its vessels are, such as publications, manuscripts, documents, coins, stone writings, inscriptions, pictures, audio-visual materials, and oral news.

Also among the projects is the “Oman in the Memory of the World” project. This project aims to document the Omani presence in the memory of other peoples, and to monitor the scattered references to Oman in the written records documented in the countries of the world, through four axes, the first axis: Oman in the memory of manuscripts It deals with the manuscripts of each country, introduces them and the treasures kept in them, and seeks to monitor the presence of Oman in the folds of those manuscripts.

The second axis: Oman in the memory of documents, and studies the presence of Oman in the documents of other peoples. It may be written, printed, or recorded in any medium for storing information.

The third axis: Oman in the memory of the press, aims to document the memory of Oman in the Arab and foreign press, and tracks the press headlines that singled out Oman for articles, news or reports.

The fourth axis: There is also a “Tarjuman Oman” project, which will last for ten years, extendable from 2022 to 2033, according to four phases. The second stage: the selection stage, in which the Omani heritage texts to be translated are carefully selected, and are inclusive – as much as possible – of the fields of humanities, experimental and pure sciences.

The third stage: the translation stage, which takes place according to strict controls that the project settled on during the establishment stage, in which the languages ​​to be translated into are chosen according to What is needed.

The fourth stage: the evaluation stage, which includes a review of previous works, criticism and evaluation of them, the challenges and difficulties they faced, the stages of work in them, a map of their spread, a study of their feasibility and fruit, and the extent of their contribution to the transmission of the Omani civilizational message to other peoples.

Despite the newness of the center, it was able to organize 7 international conferences in Malaysia, namely: “The Omani Role in the Unity of the Nation” in 2014, “The Omani Role in Serving the Arabic Language” in 2015, and “Omani Relations in Southeast Asia, China and Japan” in 2016.

“The Civilizational Message of Omani Literature” in 2017, and “The Omani Printing Movement and Its Impact on Civilizational Communication” in 2018, and “The Omani Role in Serving the Holy Qur’an and its Sciences” in 2019, and “Translating Omani Heritage: Visions and Prospects” in 2022. A series of books translated from Arabic into Malay and from English into Arabic emerged from the recommendations of previous conferences, of which six books have been published so far, and it was a strong impetus for the formulation of an integrated project for “translating the Omani heritage.” The project was announced at the seventh conference in Malaysia.

The Oman Memory Center also participated in many international and local conferences and seminars, during which it presented research papers in the field of manuscripts and heritage preservation, digitization and availability. The center has an online store, which is a digital platform for selling Oman Memory publications, and includes a window for selling paper books.

It also provides an annual subscription service for digital books for Oman Memory publications. In terms of production, the center has produced a number of documentaries, including the film “The People of Oman in the Service of the Holy Qur’an”, the film “Omani-Malaysian Relations”, the film “Five Years of Scientific Communication for the Memory of Oman in Malaysia”, the film “Translation of Omani Heritage” and the film “Memory Center”. Oman “International Islamic University Malaysia”.