On February 18, 2009 the meeting of the Academic Council dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of Dr O.F.Akimushkin took place.

First, the IOM’s head Dr I.Popova offered her own congratulations to Dr O.F.Akimushkin. Then she recited congratulations from authorities of the Scientists’ House of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences, the Academic Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Library Council of the St Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After it, addresses were delivered personally by representatives of the Manuscripts Department of the Russian National Library, the Eastern Department of the State Hermitage Museum, the Faculty of Oriental Studies of St Petersburg State University.

Next, some colleagues and pupils of Dr O.Akimushkin, all working at the IOM, delivered their own addresses and papers such as

• Dr A.I.Kolesnikov, who stressed the principal academic achievements of Dr O.Akimushkin
• Dr Y.A.Ioannesyan, who offered his own brief address to his teacher
• Dr B.V.Norik, with the paper On a New Copy of the Diwan of Fuzuli Bagdadi Kept at the IOM’s Collection [О новом списке дивана Фузули Багдади в собрании ИВР РАН]
• Dr A.A.Khismatulin, with a paper on the use of the word tanur in the works by al-Ghazali
• Dr L.I.Kryakina, with a paper on the complex research into a rare copy of the Khorasan Quadratic Kufic Quran, dated the 10th to 11th century, from the IOM’s collection (check the presentation)
• Dr S.A.Frantsouzoff, with a paper on irregular Arabic weapon inscriptions.