The FICRT Foundation joins the celebrations for World Arabic Language Day, December 18, with a virtual conference featuring prestigious university professors and doctors who spoke on various aspects of Arabic, one of the world’s most widely spoken languages.
Professor Josep Puig Montada of Complutense University moderated the event’s two sessions. Ali Al Marzooqi, Counselor at the UAE Embassy in Spain, and Jumaa AlKaabi, Director General of FICRT, opened the first session. This was followed by the first session, which focused on “the cultural richness of the Arabic language’s legacy”. Dr. Ignacio Ferrando Frutos of the University of Cadiz, Dr. Rosa Isabel Martnez Lillo of the University of Malaga, and Dr. José Miguel Puerta Vílchez of the University of Granada were the speakers.
Dr. Victoria Aguilar of the University of Murcia and Nouf Ahmed Alsheihhi of the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Humanities attended the second session, “The Arabic Language Today” (UAE).
The following are the speaker biographies:
In 1995, Professor Ignacio Ferrando Frutos received his doctorate in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Universidad Complutense with the dissertation “Los Mozárabes de Toledo: estudio lingüistico del dialecto andalus de la marca media”. He is currently Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Cádiz, where he teaches “Arabic Language History”. His translation of Egyptian author Youssef Ziedan’s work Azazel won second place in the Arabic to Spanish Translation category of the 2016 Sheik Hamad Translation and Cultural Understanding Awards. He has published several academic articles in Spanish, Arabic, and English on the Arabic language, relevant Andalusian authors, Arabic culture, poetry, and translation in various Spanish and international journals.
Professor Rosa Isabel Martnez Lillo received her PhD in Arabic Studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1990, with a dissertation on Salah Abd Al-poetic Saburr’s work. She previously taught at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and is now a full professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Malaga (since 2019). He has taught at several foreign universities, including La Sapienza in Naples, Florence, Lecce, and the Universities of Chile, Tucumán, and COLMEX in Mexico. He has taught at several foreign universities, including La Sapienza in Naples, Florence, Lecce, and the Universities of Chile, Tucumán, and COLMEX in Mexico. Professor Martínez Lillo has also translated the poets Darwish, Adonis, and Dunqul, as well as other contemporary Arab poets, and has published several scientific articles on Arab civilization, identities, al-Andalus, the Mahyar and post-Mahyar, poetry, and literary translation. His most recent books are “Al-Andalus: From Paradise to Essential Experience” and “Sadeq Hedayat and Three Spanish Authors”. He is currently the director of the University of Malaga’s Plan Propio research project “Arabs in the Triple Frontier of Paraná: Diaspora and Identity”.
José Miguel Puerta Vílchez has a BA in Art History and a PhD in Arabic Philology. He is currently a full professor at the University of Granada’s Department of Art History. He has also worked as a translator for the EFE news agency’s Spanish-Arabic department, translating current Arabic narrative and poetry, and has written several literary and opinion articles in Arabic. He was the co-director, editor, and reviewer of the Library of al-Andalus from 2004 to 2021. Professor Puerta Vílchez has also written a dozen books on Arab aesthetics and art, including “Los códigos de utopía de la Alhambra de Granada” (Granada, 1990), “Historia del pensamiento estético árabe” (Madrid, 1997; reed. Granada, 2018), “The adventure of the calamus”, History, forms and artists of Arabic calligraphy (Granada, 2007), “La poética del agua en el islam” ( Gijón, 2011), or “Read the Alhambra. Visual guide to the Monument through its inscriptions” (Granada, 2010; reed. 2015).
Professor Victoria Aguilar Sebastián received her doctorate from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1991, with a dissertation titled “The Arab Tribes in the Maghreb in the Almohad Period”. She is currently a full professor of Arabic at the University of Murcia, where she teaches both standard Arabic and Moroccan dialect. She has participated in research projects relating to the Arabic language and the Arab world, as well as directed others in Arabic language instruction. She is the author of works on North African history as well as Arabic language instruction manuals. Professor Aguilar is in charge of the “Arabele” (Arabic as a foreign language) group at the University of Murcia. Her research interests include Arabic language teaching and mediaeval history.
Mrs. Nouf Ahmed Saeed Ahmed AlShehhi is a globally certified trainer and researcher who specialises in Islamic jurisprudence and contemporary societal issues. She has taken several Arabic language and literature courses, which have given him knowledge of grammar, morphology, linguistics, and literary issues. She has taken part in various artistic and literary initiatives, as well as statewide storytelling competitions. Her literary interests and works incorporate poetry and prose.
