Fantoukh, Deputy Minister of Higher Education for Planning and Information and board member of Darrat King Abdul Aziz, has described manuscripts as “the intellectual casket of peoples' cultures from centuries back” and the “living memory of our forefathers”. Speaking in a statement marking the opening of the Manuscript Heritage of Saudi Arabia Exhibition in Riyadh, Al-Fantoukh called for manuscripts to be preserved using the most up-to-date methods of digital technology and that the largest number of people possible be given access to them. “That is the program followed by the Darrat,” he said. “There is a threat of damage to manuscripts, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been aware of the extreme importance of Arab and Islamic heritage in general, and Saudi heritage in particular by bringing in legislation ten years ago to preserve them, making it one of the first Arab countries to do so.” Al-Fantoukh said that the Darrat has been resolved to collect and preserve manuscripts and make them available to researchers. “It has acquired a large number of manuscripts amounting to over 300, with around 30,000 documented historic and rare photographs from the times of the founding of the Kingdom,” he said. “It also has original manuscripts documenting social, administrative and economic aspects of the era of King Abdul Aziz.”
