Al Azhar online unveils two new services

Al Azhar online library will also provide its global visitors with high resolution CDs of the priceless manuscripts on request for a small fee. The money generated from these services will be used to support the project.

The launch of educational centers membership will enable the higher education students and researchers to view the rare and valuable manuscripts, facilitating them in their studies and researches. This will encourage educational institutions and research centers to contribute towards preserving the Islamic heritage, promoting the true essence of Islam and spreading its message of tolerance and peace all over the world.

In response to the increasing demands, Al Azhar online will deliver endorsed high resolution CDs of the manuscripts to the scholars, researchers and students to any place around the world.

Speaking about the success of the Al Azhar online library, Moen Makki, Executive Director of 'H.H Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Project to Preserve Al Azhar Scripts and Publish Them Online', said: 'After the tremendous success the website www.alazharonline.org has witnessed, we wanted to introduce new services that will meet the visitors' requirements. As a result we developed a special subscription targeting educational institutions and research centers to enable all students and researchers (in these institutions) to access the website and view the rare manuscripts.'

'As part of new services, we will also deliver high resolution CDs of the priceless manuscripts on request for a small fee to all scholars around the world. The new Al Azhar online services come as part of Al Azhar's effort to communicate to a larger Muslim audience using the latest information and communication technologies.' Makki concluded.

Launched in October, Al Azhar has 5 million hits, more than 100000 visitors, and more than 4000 subscribers in less than two months. It is worth mentioning that Al Azhar's online library contains over 27000 manuscripts in 3 million pages that cover 63 fields in science and arts.
On completion of the archiving of the rest of Al Azhar's manuscripts - that are over 42000 manuscripts in 7 million pages - it will be the largest manuscript website on the Internet and the first of its kind in the world.