400 years of Arabic in the Netherlands!

In 2013, it was commemorated that the Netherlands and the Arab World established official university relations in language and culture four hundred years ago. This made the Netherlands one of the first European countries to establish academic relations with the Arab World.

Atlasbridges/Go Arabic, in collaboration with its partners (including Leiden University Libraries, the Academic Historical Museum, National Museum of Antiquities and the municipality of Leiden) has used this as a guideline for their activities during the 2013/2014 school year.

That year, the Atlasbridges/Go Arabic activities program paid attention to various aspects of the language, culture and history between the Netherlands and the Arab World, in commemoration of 400 years of mutual ties.

Naturally, we reflected on the developments in language and culture over the past four hundred years. However, we thought it was more important to keep an eye on the future; after all, 500,000 people of Arab descent already lived in the Netherlands at the time. What can Arabs and Dutch learn from each other in terms of language, culture, social and economic areas? The activities were intended to ensure that these two communities gained a new view of each other, their mutual relationship and their shared history.

The development of bilateral relations between the Arab World and the Netherlands offers both parties the opportunity to share each other's language and cultural wealth and is also a prerequisite for continuing this history on a new basis and finding a way to build a harmonious multicultural society to achieve. In order for this project, which will promote exchanges between these two communities, to be successful, it is crucial to establish, develop and maintain contacts with organizations and universities of both regions.

The aim of '400 Years of Arabic in the Netherlands' was on the one hand to show how this meeting took place and to recall its most important events, and on the other hand it wanted to commemorate and honor our shared history by organizing various events in a number of major cities. in the Netherlands and in the Arab World.

Since 2013/2014, Atlasbridges/Go Arabic has started many projects together with its partners in the areas of language, culture, economy, education and tourism. These projects have given a major boost to the relationship between the Mena region and the Netherlands. The official launch of the Institute of the Arab and Islamic World (IAIW) was the main event of all festivities around this theme.

For more information about the celebration of 400 years of Arabic in the Netherlands, visit www.goarabic.org