The Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language is one of the largest projects for the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
Cornell University in the United States and the University of British Columbia in Canada have included the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language in their digital library collections.
Cornell University in the United States and the University of British Columbia in Canada are ranked among the world’s leading institutions.
In a statement by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies on Tuesday, Mohammed Al-Obaidi, Executive Director of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, said that this provides researchers worldwide with unique historical material on the Arabic language for the first time.
“Making the dictionary available openly is a translation of the identity of the project, as it is a national project, and one of its most important priorities is to provide researchers wherever they are with the unique historical dictionary material that is available for the first time in the history of this ancient language,” said Al-Obaidi.
In the details, the American Cornell University included the Doha Dictionary in its electronic library, within a hierarchical classification that includes the following titles: Near Eastern Studies, Arabic Literature, Dictionaries, and Dictionaries of Synonyms and Acronyms.
The university also assigned a special subtitle to the dictionary, Arabic Ontology, with a description that provides a tool for comparative research across dictionaries and, in its final form, aims to document the semantic transformation of each word in its blog.
The Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language is one of the largest projects of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
It was officially launched on 25 May 2013, and development continued for more than 12 years.
It was completed on 22 December 2025, with more than 500 researchers from across the Arab world contributing to its development. The project is also open to the public for comments, corrections and proposals.
For its part, the University of British Columbia in Canada has added the Doha Historical Dictionary to its library with a different hierarchical classification: Research Guide – Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences – Middle East Studies – Free and Open Sources – Dictionaries.
The description of the dictionary on the University Library reads: “The Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language is an ongoing project of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies located in Doha, Qatar. The first and second phases of the project covered the history of the Arabic language from the earliest written document to the fifth century AH…”
Al-Obaidi welcomed this step, expecting that more universities in the Arab world and beyond will follow suit.
“For more than a decade, we have been keen to adjust the scientific material of the dictionary according to the highest possible academic standards, and then we have made it available through a free electronic portal to be a help for researchers in all fields of humanities and social sciences,” said Al-Obaidi.
Al-Obeidi called on Arab universities and academic institutions to make the dictionary available to students and researchers.
He also invited Arab researchers, “wherever they are, to conduct studies that deal with the dictionary or employ its material.”
source/content: dohanews.co (headline edited)
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