Dawr al-Sulṭān Qābūs ibn Saʻīd fī al-Dhawd ʻan al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah - Jaʻdīyah, Jamīlah bint Sālim ibn ʻAbbūd; al-Muʼtamar al-Duwalī: al-Dawr al-ʻUmānī fī Khidmat al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah (2015) (Kuwālā Lumbūr) (Kuwālā Lumbūr : Markaz Dhākirat ʻUmān, 2015)
Language is the personality and identity that distinguishes one nation from another, and any advance or retreat in a language is an advance or retreat for that nation; hence the duty upon its people to protect it, to seize every available opportunity to make it known and preserve it, and to affirm its presence and vitality in any forum at home or abroad. The Sultanate of Oman has given great attention to the care of Arabic, proceeding from the far-sighted vision of Sultan Qaboos bin Said regarding Arabic as a national language — a vision grounded in his broad understanding of how closely the language is bound to the life of the Omani as an Arab with his own identity, culture, religion, learning and literature. From the beginning of the blessed renaissance he worked to advance Arabic at home and abroad, to give it its true standing and to defend its gains and resources. Given the importance of what these efforts have yielded, this paper treats them across several themes and examines a set of examples: the Dictionary of Arab Names; the Sultan Qaboos chairs for teaching the language; the Sultan Qaboos College for Teaching Arabic to Non-Native Speakers; the Arabic-language schools in Zanzibar; the Centre for Translation and Arabicisation; and the Ḥiṣn al-Shumūkh Library.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-ARABICLANG-010.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: Sultan Qaboos; Arabic language policy; Oman; Language planning; Cultural diplomacy; Zanzibar