The course organised in Cairo, Egypt, and was inaugurated on 3rd January 1994 by the Chairman, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, and the President of Cairo University, Professor Mufid Shihab.
It was held in the Central Library at Cairo University and ran for almost six weeks. Twenty participants from 14 countries attended. All the participants were employed in libraries with holdings of Islamic MSS. The course was widely covered by the Egyptian media and hailed as the first attempt to formalise the training of cataloguers of Islamic MSS.