Kuwait team makes significant historical find at Mount Athos

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 16, (KUNA): In an unprecedented feat, a team from Kuwait University (KU) managed to discover rare manuscripts written in Arabic at Mount Athos in Greece.

During an archeological mission to a number of monasteries and libraries on the location in northern Greece, the team — which included history Professors Dr Abdulhadi AlAjmi, Dr Mohammad Al-Marzouqi, and Dr Hassan Badawi — was able to unearth these documents at the historic mountain, which represented around 1,800 years of Christian history in the site.

Speaking to KUNA, Dr Al-Ajmi said that the discovery at Mount Athos, an ancient sacred place chosen as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites in 1988, was crucial to understand the history of Arabs and Muslims in the region.

Getting approval from the Greek authorities to study the site was not an easy task; however, we managed to do so and the reward was beyond great, revealed the Kuwaiti academic.

He pointed out that the documents traced their origins to advance points in the golden Islamic age.

The manuscripts cover various subjects pertaining to daily events, scientific observations, religious affairs, and more, stressed Dr Al-Ajmi who expressed confidence that some of the documents were never discovered before.

He affirmed that the new discoveries will become an important reference point to those interested in what Arabs and Muslims had offered to Greece in the olden days.