Archive by Author
Al-Mutanabbi: The Arabian Knightly Poet of Majestic Grandeur Posted by Hichem on May 18, 2012
What you are about to read in today’s post is an excerpt from one of the crown jewels of Arabic literature and poetry. The author is known as المُتَنَبِّـــــــــــــي (Al-Mutanabi.) He wrote those verses as a مــــــــــدح (praise) of one of the leaders of his time, Seyf al Dawla, whose name literally means in Arabic…
فـــــــــي القُـــــــــــــدس (In Jerusalem) Posted by Hichem on May 15, 2012
Today, May 15th, is to be remembered as يــــــوم النكبــــــــــــــة (“The Day of the Catastrophe”), a day commemorated by virtually everyone in the Arab world—in addition to an important number of Orthodox Jews who not only vigorously uphold the Palestinian cause, but who also, in the name of the Jewish faith which they dearly cherish and identify with, are uncompromisingly opposed to the apartheid ideology…
Yalla! Let’s Boost Arabic e-Content! Posted by Hichem on May 14, 2012
It was about time that some of us, Arabic speakers, took an initiative to boost online Arabic content! After the recent decision of launching a “Center of Excellence for Arabic Language” in the UAE, around 400 Emirati volunteers announced that they will take part in editing a new global glossary that aims to standardize…
Why Death is *NOT* Considered Taboo in Arabic Culture Posted by Hichem on May 11, 2012
Regardless of their various walks of life, Arab people enjoy very much living life, and as a rule of thumb embrace it to the fullest. Do you perhaps know an Arab person from your own entourage? Chances are, he or she is a bon vivant(e), as the French put it. If not, then you can…
New Global “Center of Excellence” for Arabic Language Posted by Hichem on May 2, 2012
A new Arabic Language charter was announced only a week ago to establish the UAE as a global “center of excellence” for the Arabic language, news outlets such as The National and GulfNews reported. The language center will be based at Zayed University, to “revive Arabic as لغة العلـــــــوم والتكنولوجيــــــــــا (the language of sciences and technology)”. The announcement was made at the opening session of the…
Top 20 *Must-Know* Arabic Adverbs of Space Posted by Hichem on Apr 21, 2012
Of course, when we talk about adverbs of SPACE here, it’s not necessarily meaning “Outer Space“—but just any space in general! For example, how do you say in Arabic “here”, “there”, “over there”, “near”, “between”, etc.? If you want to be really fluent in Arabic, then, just like we said it a few days ago about…
How to Drive a Teacher Crazy in an Arabic Conversation! Posted by Hichem on Apr 20, 2012
Let’s get this straight: Teachers are not there to be made fun of. In fact, being a teacher is truly a noble profession. The “Prince of Arab Poets“, Ahmed Chawki, is renown for having once said: قُـمْ للمعـــــــلّمِ وَفِّــــــــــهِ التبجيـلا * * * كـــــــــادَ المعلّمُ أن يكــــــــونَ رســــــــــولا “Stand Up for Your Teacher to Offer The…