UAE | Heritage and Culture
Kalima to 'fill gaps in Arabic library'
With the mission of bridging the gap between global works of literature and Arab readers, a major translation initiative called Kalima was launched on Wednesday.
- By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:10 November 22, 2007
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
- Mohammad Khalaf Al Mazroui, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage with Karim Nagy, the CEO of Kalima, at the launch of Kalima.
Abu Dhabi: With the mission of bridging the gap between global works of literature and Arab readers, a major translation initiative called Kalima was launched on Wednesday.
Kalima would fund the translation, publication, and distribution of high-quality works of classic and contemporary writing from other languages into Arabic. One hundred titles have been selected to begin with, this year.
Over the past decades there has been very limited translations of foreign writing into Arabic, making the initiative important in linking different cultures and communities to the Arab world.
Kalima, meaning word in Arabic, is a non-profit translation initiative that would make available many more choices to Arab readers.
Access to knowledge
Speaking to Gulf News, Karim Nagy, the CEO of Kalima, said that the Kalima was born out of a recognition that there exists a wide gap between the Arab world and the rest of the world in terms of access to knowledge, combined with the fact that the majority of Arab readers prefer to read in Arabic.
"Currently in most Arabic countries, 'great works' of world literature or academia are only available in their original language, making them inaccessible for most readers.
"For so many years, Arabic readers have been cut off from great works of world literature and academia - we think it's time to change that. It's time to fill the gaps in the Arabic library."
"We need to put up a serious effort and commitment into translation of books published earlier ... there is a lot of catching up to do and then we need to keep up with every new book that comes out."
Detailing the title selection process, Nagy said, "Title selection is something that we spent a long time on. It was a challenge to select 100 books from a database of over 25,000 books.
"We followed a scientific and rigorous process going from 25,000 books to 2,000 to 200 and finally shortlisting 100 titles."
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