UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Work Together Wikimedia Digitize Ancient Script

The process of digitizing ancient scripts in West Sumatra. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Center for Islamic Studies and the Community of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah informed that his party was working with the Wikimedia Foundation to digitize ancient manuscripts from West Sumatra Province.

"The old houses are being digitized through the Wikisource Cinta Script (Wilma) Program," said Pramono, who led the digitalization team for ancient West Sumatra manuscripts, in Jakarta, Monday.

Quoting Antara, Wednesday, collaborative efforts to store and disseminate information about old manuscripts to the public are also supported by the Andalas University Institute for Community Research and Development (LPPM) and two local organizations.

The organizations are the Love Society of the Archipelago (Manissa) and the Surau Intellectual Community for Conservation (SURI).

Currently, his team members are digitizing the ancient manuscript of Syech Abdul Latif Syakur, a prominent cleric who studied Islam directly from Syech Ahmad Khatib Al-Minangkabauwi.

Syakur (18821963) is known for his intellectual talent, as evidenced by his collection of works. Interestingly, his writings not only discuss religious matters, but also culinary.

During his lifetime, Syakur was known as a cleric who liked to cook, said Pramono, adding that his team members were currently digitizing 50 bundles of Syakur scripts.

"They are targeting to complete digitization of around 7 thousand pages of the Syakur Syech script this month," he added.

For digitizing Syakur's manuscript, team members are divided into two groups.

The first group was tasked with taking digital photocopies of the manuscript, while the second group was tasked with uploading metadata. During the work process, they found many broken manuscripts.

"For this purpose, we do need special efforts to restore the heavily and moderately damaged manuscript," he said, adding that digital copies of the old manuscript would be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, which provides free content to the public.

"Before digitizing ancient manuscripts in West Sumatra, the person in charge of the Wilma Program carried out similar missions in the provinces of Bali and Yogyakarta," said Pramono.