The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), has announced the launch of the ‘One Hundred and One Books’ project, which will develop approved lists of Arabic books that have influenced global culture and contributed to human knowledge.
The project was launched to fill a gap in the Arab publishing industry, and to provide Arab readers with a larger pool of literary resources that will help them discover the greatest Arab works of all time that have,until now, remained little known to the public. The project also aims to help researchers, publishers, translators, historians and readers from other cultures access these titles to discover and study the richness and distinct character of Arab intellectual contributions throughout history.
HE Dr Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, said: “The ‘One Hundred and One Books’ project is part of a strategy aimed at promoting Arab culture and language around the world, and it seeks to introduce regional audiences to curated reading lists of Arabic literature popular in previous eras. This is the reason we chose this title for our project; to show that the list is open and can be expanded, based on proposals made by other centres, authorities, institutions and organisations specialising in Arabic literature.
“Many international organisations seek to approach Arab culture, but they often collide with the absence or lack of lists that can be relied upon,” HE Dr Bin Tamim added. “We also noticed a severe lack of information related to many important Arab works on the Internet, and we hope that this series of lists will be a starting point to fill this gap. We also hope that all institutions, specialists, researchers and all those with academic, professional or extracurricular interest in the Arabic language, will collaborate on creating a series of lists that cover various aspects of writing in Arabic or about Arab culture in other languages.”
HE Dr bin Tamim announced that the ‘One Hundred and One Books” project will be releasing its first list soon, and it will include major works which have influenced world cultures, including intellectual, creative, encyclopaedic and linguistic works from the dawn of Arabic literature until the 17thcentury. This first list will be followed by lists covering later periods, followed by other lists dealing with various writing styles and literary genres, such as poetry, prose, linguistics, and fiction.
Mouza Al Shamsi, Acting Executive Director of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, explained that the lists will be developed by a group of researchers and specialists with considerable experience in the field, including members of the Scientific Committee of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, sub-committees, and a group of researchers and critics from various fields of knowledge in the Arab region and the world.
Al Shamsi highlighted that each list will be printed in Arabic, then translated into a number of languages, with each list accompanied by an introduction about the selected works, as well as some context that explains why these works in particular are significant or impactful.
The first list will be available to the public digitally, produced in high-quality audio and video. The Centre also intends to conduct a series of seminars and workshops to discuss the books and their impact on the world’s cultures and literary contributions. Some books will be shortened and used in the curricula for teaching Arabic to native and non-native speakers.
The Scientific Committee of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre is chaired by HE Dr bin Tamim, with membership including: Dr Paula Santillán Grimm, Arabist, lecturer and translator, with a doctorate in Arabic Linguistics from the University of Granada in Spain;Prof Dr Bilal Orfali, Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Head of the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages, American University of Beirut; Prof Dr Khalil Al Sheikh, Director of the Arabic Language Education & Research Department, Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre;Prof Dr Salah Fadl, President of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo; Dr Abdullah Muhammad Al Ghathami, Professor of Criticism and Literary Theory, King Saud University in Riyadh; HE Prof Abdullah Majed Al Ali, Executive Director of the National Archives in Abu Dhabi; Prof Dr Vitaly Naumkin, Scholar at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow;Dr Muhsin Jassim Al-Musawi, Professor of Arabic and Comparative Studies, Columbia University in New York; and Prof Dr Hanada Taha Thomure, Chair of Arabic Language and Assistant Dean at the Centre for Research and Development, Zayed University.
