The National Museum, represented by Mr Jamal bin Hassan Al-Mosawi, director-general of the National Museum, signed an agreement with the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, represented by Professor Dr Irina Popova. The agreement was signed on Wednesday, 11th December 2019 CE, to loan the original manuscript of the Omani navigator Ahmed bin Majid Al-Saadi, which was written in his handwriting for display at the National Museum.

The manuscript entitled " Kit?b Al-Faw??id f? U??l ?Ilm Al-Ba?r Wa - AL Qaw??id", has been preserved in St. Petersburg since the beginning of the 19th century and as it`s registered as a national heritage of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, the Manuscript will be on display from October 2020 CE in the Maritime History Gallery in the National Museum-Oman.

Kit?b Al-Faw??id f? U??l ?Ilm Al-Ba?r Wa - AL Qaw??id"

Author: Ahmad bin Majid as-S’adi

Date: before 1500 CE.

Number of pages: 156

Sizes: 20 × 12.7 cm

Leather and red and black ink on paper.

The manuscript includes (3) three proses. The first prose is about navigation line along the eastern African coast. And the second prose describes the marine routes to India, Indonesia, and South China. While the third prose handles navigational instructions of the Red Sea.

Furthermore, the Manuscript was acquired in 1819 CE by the Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Science in Saint Petersburg, (subsequently renamed Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in 2007 CE).

The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts contains about 115,593 classified and printed manuscripts in over 65 oriental languages, while the total number of the Institute holdings is more than one (1) million