Sharjah Ruler inaugurates Portugal’s first centre for Arabic studies

Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, has inaugurated Portugal's first centre for Arabic studies, at the University of Coimbra.

The centre, within the university’s faculty of arts and humanities, operates under the supervision of the Sharjah Book Authority. It will begin offering courses this month, with structured programmes in Arabic language, grammar and calligraphy.

The centre will also organise conferences, open classes, workshops, exhibitions and performances focused Arab culture.

“This significant step confirms our shared determination to bring peoples closer together through language and culture,” Sheikh Dr Sultan said at the inauguration on campus.

“I believe that when knowledge springs from truth, it becomes a solid bridge for dialogue and a firm foundation for building relations between peoples.

“Culture may not change geography, but it changes the way we see it. It cannot erase borders, but it can transform them into living points of encounter. Culture also does not change history, but it changes the way we read it.”

Translation will be a central activity of the centre, aimed at expanding the availability of works between Arabic and European languages.

The centre in Coimbra, about 200km north of Lisbon, will be led by Prof Abdeljelil Larbi, a Tunisian academic specialising in Arabic language and comparative literary studies.

Friday’s inauguration builds on existing collaboration between Sharjah and the university. The Digital Joanina project, launched in February, is a joint project between the university and the Sharjah Book Authority to digitise the Joanina Library’s historic collections.

The library is a Baroque landmark built as part of the university between 1717 and 1728 under King Joao V and inscribed in 2013 on the Unesco World Heritage List. It has a limestone facade, ceilings emblazoned with paintings of literary and allegorical figures, as well as gilded wooden bookshelves holding thousands of historic volumes.

The project entered its pilot stage in 2024, during which 141 works were digitised as a proof of concept. The next stage will cover the main floor of the Joanina Library, which holds 30,000 works.

University of Coimbra rector Amilcar Falcao said that over the next six years, more than 20 million images will be catalogued. “It is a systematic effort to strengthen a unique collection, restoring copies when needed, and ensuring their survival for future generations,” he added.

“Our idea is to open the Joanina Library to the world. We have the Joanina Library, a treasure that contains another treasure. If the entire collection can be accessed from anywhere in the world, the whole world will be able to appreciate this timeless wealth – which is one of the reasons we were listed as a World Heritage Site.”

Francisco Veiga, Deputy Mayor of Coimbra, said the project reflects a broader vision of cultural co-operation, which included the university granting an honorary doctorate to Sheikh Dr Sultan in 2018. “This rapprochement was from the start based on the shared desire to build strong and lasting relations – relations that find in culture fertile ground for meeting, dialogue and the building of the future,” Mr Veiga said.

Prof Jose Pedro Paiva, dean of the faculty of arts and humanities, told The National the reopening of Arabic teaching in Coimbra is resonant.

“Since the 16th century, some Portuguese sailed across the Indian Ocean to the Gulf, where they encountered the peoples of what we now know as the emirate of Sharjah – sometimes leaving painful traces,” Prof Paiva said.

“We want people in Portugal to be more aware of the Arabic influences in our everyday life, from the architecture to the words we used. So this centre is very important in building those important bridges.”

Sheikh Dr Sultan also used the occasion to present the university with the original manuscript by Duarte Barbosa, the 16th-century Portuguese officer who documented the Gulf and Asia, along with his own book A Journey of Great Importance, which provides a commentary on Barbosa’s work with translations available in Portuguese and English.

“This writing carried the spirit of an honest researcher, who shared what he saw and lived while keeping distance from the ambitions of power,” Sheikh Dr Sultan said of Barbosa's work. “I present them to your institution so the origin of the story is returned to the people about whom it was written.”

In 2024, a similar Arabic Cultural Institute opened at Milan's Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. It was also established through the Sharjah Book Authority, which runs programmes there ranging from Arabic language courses to the translation of Arabic texts into Italian.