Plain talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

---

I'll always remember one of my visits to the US, sometime in 1985. While I was loitering in Columbus, New York, I came across a plaque which bore the title "Dahesh Heritage", and which was showing a number of Arabic books. I was intrigued by this, since, while in London there are many centres displaying Arabic books, newspapers and magazines, that was the first time I had encountered such a centre in America.

This was not only intriguing but possibly also something to look forward to. It had always seemed sad that Arabic literature had so little presence in that huge and very important country, and the thought that this might have changed was cheering indeed. Perhaps, finally, someone had got their act together and managed to present the US with effective access to Arabic literature -- something I was sure there had always been demand for, not only because of foreign interest in the Arab world but also by virtue of the merits of Arabic writing in itself.

I went in, curious as I was, determined to get into the bottom of this. And this is the story as I was told it by those responsible for the centre:

In January 1977, Dr Dahesh, a leading Arab writer and intellectual, was in New York, having already visited a number of states in America. While he was in this cosmopolitan city, he noticed that there was no trace of a bookshop where one could obtain the works of Arab writers. Following his great disappointment he wrote, "What I shall announce now is terrible. Four million Arabs in the USA, and yet across the length and width of the continent, there is not a single bookshop where one can buy Arabic books. What a shame!"

Seven years later, in 1984 to be exact, such a bookshop came into being and Dahesh Publishing saw the light. In 1993, the plaque bearing the title of "Dahesh Heritage" went up, displaying, not only the numerous works of Dr Dahesh, but of a number of Arab writers and intellectuals.

In 1995, Dahesh Publishing started issuing a bilingual magazine named Dahesh Voice. The magazine is now a regular publication carrying articles in both Arabic and English by such famous Arab figures as Tharwat Okasha.

So the dream of Dr Dahesh has come true, and the bookshop is now in No. 1775 Broadway, where the Newsweek offices are. What the bookshop displays are the best that Arab writers have produced, both in Arabic and in translation.

It also displays translations into Arabic of samples of world thought together with dictionaries and references in 85 languages, including, of course, Arabic. The bookshop is also a centre for up-to-date new works from the Arab world.

The clients of the bookshop, if I may use a rather commercial term, are Arab students studying at American universities, together with non-Arab students undertaking research about the Arab world. There are also United Nations members, ambassadors and librarians. What is really interesting is the surge in people who want to know more about the Arab world and even seek to learn the Arabic language.

As a result of this Arabic infiltration through the "Dahesh Heritage", a number of American universities have introduced Arabic to their curriculae, while American libraries have started acquiring Arabic books. This helps to put the Arabic language on a par with European languages.

The "Dahesh Heritage" bookshop is now supplying Arabic books to such famous American outlets as Donnel in New York, the Queens and Brooklyn libraries, Michigan, Colombia University in New York, Princeton University in New Jersey, Fordham and City College. The bookshop's sales went as far as Japan, Sweden, Holland, Germany and Spain. There is no doubt that it meets the ambitions of Dr Dahesh.