The Ministry of Culture and Sports yesterday held a panel discussion on efforts to collect popular literature in the State of Qatar. It was attended by a group of researchers in the heritage and folk literature of Qatar.
During the session, Ali Abdullah al-Fayyad, a researcher in the Qatari heritage, spoke about the efforts made to collect Qatari folk literature, explaining that it started with individual contributions and then turned into institutional efforts. Al Fayyad explained that efforts to collect the literary heritage in Qatar remained individual until the establishment of Qatar Heritage and Identity Centre.
He added that several governmental cultural institutions interested in the Qatari heritage such as the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Qatar Museums and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. The session also dealt with the efforts of Qatari researchers who have had outstanding efforts in collecting the literary heritage, including the poet Hamad Mohsen al-Nuaimi, who is interested in heritage in the media and the Qatari press, as well as Khalifa al-Maliki, who participated in the collection of heritage, especially the old folk tale, and Qatari proverbs, in addition to the efforts of artist Abdulrahman al-Mannai in the field of theatre. The participants emphasised the importance of having a research centre that would complement the previous efforts in preserving the heritage, stressing the importance of taking advantage of modern technology in heritage preservation.
