Claudia Abreu*
São Paulo – The cultural exchange between Arabs and South Americans should gain in body in the second half of this year. In October there will be a symposium to define the regulations for creation of a basic library for South America and the Arab countries.
The decision was taken last week by diplomats and scholars from both regions during a meeting in Brazilian capital Brasília. Up to then, those involved in the process will be in charge of finding solutions to various questions regarding the project, specifically with regard to the financing of the enterprise.
The site for the symposium has not yet been defined. "The Syrian government has proposed that the meting take place there. São Paulo has also offered to host the debates," stated ambassador Heloísa Vilhena, the director of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry Research Center (Ipri).
According to Heloísa, the idea for the library not to be simply a book depository, but a "living" environment for studies, in which information may be exchanged constantly. "Up to now, the Arab culture in the South American countries has remained within the Arab centres. The same may be said on the South American side. It is all very restricted, and there is therefore a great lack of knowledge on both sides. The library is a mechanism to change this scenery, to spread knowledge and stimulate studies," he said.
The project is an initiative of the organizers of the summit between the Arab and South American countries, to take place on Tuesday (10) and Wednesday (11), in Brazilian capital Brasília. The proposal for the summit declaration, to which ANBA had access, forecasts that the library will be an instrument for academic cooperation – and will provide scholarships on both sides -, that it will promote conferences and, finally, adopt its "library function," i.e., have works of Arab and South American reference.
According to Heloísa, the objective is, initially, to translate the fundamental books for the knowledge of both regions. The texts in Arabic will have versions in Spanish and Portuguese, and vice versa. "This first step is essential. The more the countries get to know each other, the better. This is the way to create an environment of friendship, of closeness, and that is what we want," she said.
To the ambassador, it is necessary to mobilize publishing houses – those belonging to universities or commercial ones – so that the translations may be done quickly. Initiatives like those of Globo publishing house, which released yesterday (7), the Thousand and One Nights translated from the original Arabic, for the first time, should be taken advantage of. The translation was done by Mamede Mustafá Jarouche, an Arabic language and literature professor at the University of São Paulo (USP).
House of Knowledge
The library should be called House of Knowledge, recalling the one in Baghdad, in the 9th century. It served as inspiration for the organizers of the project, who chose this name because the institution was one of the great engines for the intellectual transformation of Europe, in the 9th century. The organization reintroduced to the West the thoughts of Ancient Greece, which had been lost and were rescued with the Arab translations.
*Translated by Mark Ament
