Muscat - The Sultanate of Oman is celebrating the annual day of globally influential Omani personalities listed in UNESCO, which is marked on February 10 every year.
The celebration of this day aims to introduce influential Omani figures at the local and global levels and shed light on their cognitive and scientific legacy.
The first important Omani historical event included in this program is the 350th anniversary of the establishment of Jibreen Fort.
The Sultanate of Oman has succeeded in including seven Omani figures and one historical event in the UNESCO Program for Important Historical Events and Globally Influential Personalities, namely the linguist Al-Khalil bin Ahmed al Farahidi in 2005, the doctor and pharmacist Rashid bin Omairah al Hashimi al-Rustaqi in 2013, and in 2015 the polymath and reformer Sheikh Noureddine al Salmi, doctor and physicist Abu Muhammad Abdullah bin Muhammad al-Azdi, nicknamed Ibn al-Dhahabi, and poet Nasser bin Salem al-Rawahi, nicknamed Abu Muslim al-Bahlani were included in 2019.
The Omani navigator Ahmed bin Majid al-Saadi was included in the 2021.
Ahmed bin Majid is counted among the most famous navigators in the Indian Ocean. His seafaring literature has enriched Arab and European libraries and constituted a basic reference in principles of navigation. His innovations include the Al Warda instrument (wind compass) and a three-sided wooden instrument to locate stars. He is also credited with developing the contemporary maritime compass.
At the meetings of the Administrative Affairs Committee of the 42 session of the General Conference of UNESCO, which was held in November 2023, the Sultanate of Oman was able to include two new cultural elements in this program - the 350th anniversary of the establishment of the Jibreen Fortress, and the 150th anniversary of the death of the historian and literary poet Humaid bin Mohammed bin Raziq.
The poet Abu Muslim al Bahlani was included among the influential figures on the occasion of the centenary of his death, who died in 1920.
Abu Muslim al-Bahlani was chosen as a poet and pioneer of Diaspora journalism in Zanzibar, and his global influence has extended beyond the borders of the homeland to many parts of the Arab world and East Africa.
The inclusion of the great Omani poet Abu Muslim was the culmination of the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Education represented by the Omani National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, in the selection of the personalities that meet the UNESCO criteria.
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