A group of researchers and academics from Qatar University and abroad reviewed the relationship between the Arabic language and cultural communication during a symposium presented by the Qatari Authors Forum and the Qatari National Committee for Education, Culture and Science in cooperation with the Arabic Language Department at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University. This symposium was part of the celebration activities in Arabic, which will continue until the end of March with the participation of many relevant parties.
A group of faculty members and students from Qatar University and abroad attended the teleconference titled “Arabic and cultural communication”. Professor Risa Al-Dosari, who gave the floor to Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Mutawa, the Assistant Dean of the Language, Media and Translation Department, presented the opening session. He said, language’s relationship with civilizations brings us to the past and to the future.
Saleh Gharib, the forum’s program manager, delivered a speech on behalf of Mariam Yassin Al-Hammadi, the forum’s director general, and the director of the Culture and Arts Department. He said that the forum comes as part of a series of seminars, meetings, and events that the forum launched in cooperation with the committee three years ago, in partnership with many authorities in the country. Dr. Abdulhaq Belabid, professor of literature, critical studies at Qatar University and member of the forum, explained that after the issuance of the Amiri resolution on the Arabic language, the celebration of the language became extended throughout the year, and no longer one day. He added that the Qatari Authors Forum and the Qatari National Committee for Education, Culture and Science allocated three months annually to celebrate the Arabic language with multiple parties.
The session was opened by Dr. Mohammed Al Obaidi, deputy executive director of the historic Doha Dictionary for the Arabic language, who gave an introduction on the role of Doha dictionary in promoting cultural communication. He stated, language reflects cultural and social life at all levels. Dr. Zainab Al-Mahmoud, a faculty member in the Arabic Language Department, presented a paper entitled “The Role of the Arabic Language in Building Global Civilization.” She emphasized that language is the tool that delivers thought and is a means to achieve goals, and that it is a rich record of human habits and that the language in the Arab world is intimate, which gives it importance, as it is linked to social value and closely related to the Holy Quran, which came down with it. Dr. Haitham Sarhan, a member of the teaching staff in the Arabic language department, presented a paper entitled the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, a book he translated in cooperation with graduate student Athba Khalid Al-Meslamani. Dr. Alaa Ibrahim, of the Arabic Language Center for Other Speakers in the University, stressed the need to strengthen the spirit of cultural communication.
Dr. Abdul Hamid Zahid, a member of the teaching staff of the Arabic Language Department, addressed translation to and from Arabic as a bridge for cultural communication and presented a historical overview of translation in the Arab-Islamic civilization.