NEWS
Emphasizing The Importance of Reconnecting Generations with Their Arab Memory An Academic at UoB Publishes Five Books Within The ” Arabic Poetry’s Finest Selection” Project
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Ali Al-Sabbaq)
24 August 2023
Associate Professor of Narratives and Modern Literary Criticism at the College of Arts at the University of Bahrain (UoB), Dr. Diyaa Abdullah Al-Ka’abi, has published five books as part of the ‘Oyoon Al-Shae’er Al-Arabi’ (Arabic Poetry’s Finest Selection) project, which is implemented by Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center in the United Arab Emirates.
This achievement represents an academic and cultural partnership between the University and Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center of the Department of Culture and Tourism, which is concerned with supporting the Arabic language and developing strategies for its development and advancement.
The five books are: Al-Marad, Al-Bahar, Al-Sahraa, Al-Atlal, and Al-Safar, prepared by researcher Dr. Al-Ka’abi based on an inquisitive cultural survey of hundreds of ancient and modern Arabic collections of poems on selected topics, which were issued with academic critical introductions.
Abu Dhabi Center had launched two cultural projects, which are the digital versions of “Arabic Prose’s Finest Selection ” and ” Arabic Poetry’s Finest Selection “, through which a cultural survey and an almost comprehensive investigation of the founding Arab cultural memory is conducted, by employing modern technology, to introduce new generations to their cultural memory and history in intriguing ways.
The two cultural projects are part of the “Audio Book” series, with modern standards that keep pace with the highest standards of technology and digitization.
Dr. Diyaa Al-Ka’abi, Head of the Department of Arabic Language and Islamic Studies, stated: “The existence of such qualitative cultural projects would reconnect generations with their Arab memory, and incite Arab and foreign researchers to systematically work on a range of Arab prose and poetry, given that some topics have not been appropriately studied in-depth.”.
Moreover, she noted the tendency to digitize such heritage, saying: “In an era of rapid digital transformations, we need media that transmit Arab literary and cultural memory in different ways that attract Arab recipients, whose cultural taste has changed, and there is no room in their time to refer to an ancient Arab source with nearly thousands of pages.”.
Regarding her five books, she said: “These books attempt to interrogate the Arab cultural histories for the new generations, in addition to representing foundational materials for specialists. For example, the book “Al-Marad” questions the literary and cultural taste of the new Arab generations in everything related to the discourse of illness in poetry in Arab culture since the pre-Islamic era, such as poems and verses.”.
She further stated: “As for the book Al-Bahr, it investigates the literary, cultural, and metaphorical representations of the sea in Arabic poetry through its ages, from ancient Arabic poetry to modern Arabic poetry, and allows us to historically trace and investigate what the Arab poets produced of various poetic collections by reflecting on the many representations of the sea. While the book (Al-Safar) observes dozens of ancient Arabic poetic texts by about fifty poets, which came in the form of poetic verses, starting with the Arab poet Al-Shanafari Al-Azdi who lived in the pre-Islamic period, and to the Lebanese poet Nassif Al-Yazji, one of the poets of the nineteenth century.”.
It is worth noting that Dr. Al-Ka’abi is an academic and critic working on cultural narratives. She obtained a Ph.D. in Arabic Language and Literature from the College of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Jordan in 2004, for her thesis “Transformations of Ancient Arab Narratives: A Study of Cultural Patterns and Interpretation Dilemmas.”, in addition to a master’s degree in 1999 at the same university for her thesis: “The Image of Women in The Ancient Arab Narrative, A Study in Al-Jahiz’s Books, Songs, And Arab Folk Biographies.”. Dr. Al-Ka’abi wrote countless books and scientific research, which qualified her to win many awards, the most recent of which was the Ousha bint Khalifa Al-Suwaidi Award in the Literary and Critical Studies division, in the year 2021.
The head of the Department of Arabic Language and Islamic Studies at the University is active in many specialized frameworks and associations, in addition to her membership in several scientific committees to judge literary, critical and narrative works.
