Qatar’s enduring service to Arabic
Since the inception of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has been supporting this massive project since 2013 as the heir apparent back then in a manifestation of His Highness’ commitment to the Arab language and civilisation. After more than 13 years of research, experimentation, and documentation, the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language was announced, marking the completion of an unprecedented Arabic linguistic project. Thus, the final version of the dictionary was officially announced, concluding its third phase, thus crowning the hard work in this project that brought together more than 300 scholars for the first time in the history of the construction of Arabic dictionaries to learn how to make a historical dictionary. Such endeavours are budget-draining, and one of the backbones that has been ensured by Qatar and His Highness’s generous support to the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, which was entrusted with managing this prestigious project. This is going to be a landmark in the Arab world and will allow researchers today and for many generations to come to read Arabic texts with a precise historical understanding, free from the imposition of modern meanings. Apart from the fact that the dictionary will provide a rich and systematised corpus, it will facilitate scientific researchers’ endeavours. The dictionary is going to offer a valued knowledge base which will benefit Arab academics, writers, and intellectuals to include anyone interested in research in language and culture. Another plus is that the linguistic data and particulars collected by this project will contribute to the development of Arabic applications in computer science and AI. For the first time, the Arabic dictionary is to reveal the richness and vitality of the Arabic language, debunking claims that Arabic language is not capable of development or disengaged from contemporary Arabic dialects. Moreover, the Arab Dictionary will prove that the gap between classical Arabic and local dialects is far smaller than commonly believed, for, most of the Arab dialects are derived from classical Arabic. This dictionary proves once more that Qatar is firmly rooted in history and deeply ingrained in civilisation. As the user friendliness of the Dictionary attests, it will serve both researchers and the young Arab generations as a modern reference, and the achievement of the dictionary is an incentive to expand a journey for more perfection, and the continuation of a unique scientific achievement after 13 years of continuous hard endeavours. It will call for ongoing updating while it opens new horizons for research and knowledge. This reflects the Arab world's capacity to keep pace with developments in the fields of computing and artificial intelligence and to produce pioneering cultural projects, thus the Arab Dictionary is now among the world's living languages.