Arabic is the native language of around 25 independent states and territories. In the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center (ALC) is at the forefront of championing this very language scholarly, educationally, culturally, and creatively.
The organization was founded as part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi. To advance Arabic in academic, cultural, and public life, ALC has pioneered several projects, including translation initiatives, awards and grants, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
In this interview, H.E. Saeed Hamdan Al Teneiji, executive director of the ALC, talks more about these endeavors. He discusses various projects and partnerships — and how the ALC is promoting the Arabic language and reinforcing its global influence.
Could you share the journey and vision behind the Kalima Project for Translation? How has it evolved to meet the needs of today’s readers?
The Kalima Project for Translation was launched in 2007 by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE president, to reinvigorate the translation movement in the Arab world and build bridges of intercultural communication with people all around the globe. So far, the project has provided Arab libraries with more than 1,330 books translated from 24 languages in 10 different fields of knowledge.
It has also helped boost the translation into Arabic from various languages in an effort to provide wider options to Arab readers and fill the gap in Arab libraries in various fields.
The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center’s annual awards celebrate exceptional talents across multiple fields. How do these awards inspire the next generation of writers and translators, and what impact do you see them having?
The ALC has a number of awards that recognize and reward talent and exceptional contributions in the fields of culture and knowledge. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA), for example, is a prestigious international award given annually to culture creators, publishers, and youth, while the Kanz Al Jeel Award strives to elevate popular poetry, particularly Nabati poetry, and emphasize its role in society. The Sard Al Thahab Award aims to support the folk art of Arabic storytelling across the Arab world in recognition of the long tradition of storytelling in the Arabic language.
These awards provide an incentive for young authors and translators to persevere in their work and make notable accomplishments. Their extraordinary success can be seen in the figures: the ALC received a total of 13,694 submissions across all three awards, with 10,400 for the SZBA and 1,099 and 2,195, respectively, for Kanz Al Jeel and Sard Al Thahab, both of which were launched more recently.
How do the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center’s grants facilitate the global reach of Arabic literature? And what criteria do you use to select works or projects that deserve to receive these grants?
In total, the ALC has awarded 1,551 grants since its inception. The ALC’s grant programs include the Research Grants program, which aims to encourage researchers in various fields related to Arabic and to support high-quality research projects that advance and promote the Arabic language. This year, the program received 270 applications from 31 countries.
Meanwhile, the ‘Spotlight on Rights’ program was launched to support the translation of content to and from Arabic, as well as to strengthen efforts to convert printed books into digital and audio formats. It provides financial grants to publishers from around the world who participate in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF), which is organized by the center. Since its inception in 2009, the grants have contributed to the publication of more than 1,324 books across various categories, including children’s books, science, history, and social sciences, among others, issued by over 191 publishers.
Also on the list is the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s translation grant, which aims to increase the number of Arabic books that are translated, published, and distributed abroad.
In awarding grants, the center prioritizes works that are methodical, innovative, and meet academic standards — works that add value and bring something new to Arab readers or Arabic language experts and enthusiasts.
How does the International Congress of Arabic Publishing & Creative Industries address the current challenges in the Arabic publishing and creative industries, and what emerging trends have you observed?
The International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries, launched in 2022, aims to establish a regional and global knowledge-sharing hub for publishers and creative content developers, explore the latest trends in publishing and highlight new approaches to adapting books into other formats.
The latest edition of the Congress highlighted the need to advance the Arab publishing sector by engaging with the creative industries. Rather than limiting efforts to traditional publishing, it urged adopting innovative approaches to broaden the scope of the sector.
A key trend in the content industry in recent years has been the rapid shift in consumer preferences, especially among younger audiences, toward greater convenience and accessibility. It is therefore imperative to explore new models for content creation and consumption that align with these preferences, including empowering young creators to share ideas and collaborate in producing original content. There is also a need to leverage the capabilities of artificial intelligence and big data in today’s digital age in order to tailor content to resonate locally rather than relying on direct translation. This is the key to achieving both a strong local impact and global relevance.
The MoU with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center is a groundbreaking partnership. What specific projects or outcomes do you envision as part of this collaboration to advance Arabic-language scientific content?
The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center established a partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center to focus primarily on enhancing joint initiatives across cultural, scientific, and publishing fields, addressing a range of topics of mutual interest. It also includes participation in each other’s events, projects, and cultural programs, in addition to supporting data exchange, resource development, and expanding areas of cooperation to serve the public interest.
We will also be working closely with the MBRSC team to draft a book that highlights their experiences and achievements, underlining the UAE’s remarkable achievements in space exploration.
Read: How Alef Education shapes the future of learning in MENA
How does the ALC use AI to enhance the Arabic language learning and translation experience, and how is this technology helping to widen access to Arabic literature?
The ALC launched the AI-powered Audiobook platform, which is the center’s first step toward incorporating artificial intelligence into publishing and book production, in line with the UAE government’s vision to invest in AI. The platform uses artificial intelligence to convert written texts into high-quality audio content, reproducing a selection of the ALC’s publications and making it easier for readers, researchers, students, and people of determination to access notable literary and knowledge publications.
The project supports our publishing and digitization efforts. So far, 10 books from the National Treasures series have been converted to audiobooks using AI for the first time by applying vowelization to the text to enable AI-powered automated reading.
We have also incorporated AI into our Digital Lexicon project, which uses Arabic language computing technologies and AI to convert written text into spoken language, enabling users to listen to the correct pronunciation of words, learn their definitions, and explore examples of their use.
On the same note, the pioneering Poetic Intelligence Lab project aims to present poetry content with modern tools to help Arabic language learners and teachers explore poetic arts. It also helps young poets refine their poems and ensure their linguistic and prosodic accuracy using AI technologies.
