Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2008, pages 55-56

Music & Arts

Abu Dhabi Launches Major Arabic Translation Initiative

	Kalima has already translated and published a variety of books (Photo Courtesy Kalima).

KALIMA, A NEW nonprofit cultural initiative funded by the Cultural Heritage Authority of Abu Dhabi, launched the largest Arabic translation initiative in the world on Nov. 21, 2007. Kalima, which means “word” in Arabic, will fund the translation, publication and distribution of high-quality works of classic and contemporary writing from other languages into Arabic. The first 100 books slated for translation within the year include 26 American books, some of which are Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom.

“The rest of the world enjoys a wealth of domestic and translated writing, why should the Arab world be any different?” asked Karim Nagy, founder and chief executive of Kalima at the launching event. “Today Kalima is bringing Arabic readers all over the world quality writing in their mother tongue—something they have been deprived of for so long. Kalima has taken the first steps on the long path toward rebuilding the Arab library.”

In most Arab countries, many great works of world literature are only available in their original language, making them inaccessible to the majority of readers. Only about 330 books are translated into Arabic each year. (By comparison, in one year Spain translates the same number of books into Spanish as the number translated into Arabic over the last 1,000 years.)

Throughout Europe’s “Dark Ages” and until the end of the first millennium, Arab scholars and libraries led the world in producing and preserving knowledge in the fields of science, medicine, philosophy and the arts. During that time, knowledge flourished thanks to the many translations of important works into Arabic. Since then, however, very few foreign works have found their way into Arabic, producing a gap that Kalima aims to close.

“Kalima reflects a broader cultural renaissance emerging from the Arab region, including a revived interest in the Arabic language,” said Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei, director general of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. “Arabic is a beautifully expressive language, and one that should be celebrated and enjoyed.”

Now great books originally written in Latin, ancient and modern Greek, Old English, Yiddish, German, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Swedish and Czech will be available in Arabic.

“Books serve as bridges between civilizations, and the Kalima initiative will be a great builder of bridges. This project takes an invaluable step toward removing needless barriers between cultures,” wrote Philip Seib, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication, in an endorsement posted on the Kalima Web site, <www.kalima.ae>. Perhaps a similar effort can be made to translate Arabic books into English to complete the bridge-building process.

—Delinda C. Hanley