His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended this morning the ceremony marking the completion of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language.
HH the Amir expressed Qatar’s pride in the completion of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, noting that its rich content strengthens Arab peoples’ attachment to their identity while reflecting openness to the modern era and its tools with confidence. He said the occasion also provided an opportunity to thank all those who contributed to this historic civilisational achievement, adding that both its completion and the stages of its development represent a manifestation of fruitful Arab integration.
During the ceremony, a film was screened highlighting the dictionary’s new electronic portal, which provides users with historical lexicographical content and reflects the dictionary’s role in enhancing the digital presence of the Arabic language and expanding access to it through advanced modern tools.
HH the Amir honoured the experts, researchers and editors who worked on completing the dictionary project across its various stages, in recognition of their scholarly efforts, research contributions and significant service to the Arabic language.
The ceremony was attended by a number of Their Excellencies ministers, representatives of regional and international organisations, heads of Arabic language academies, individuals interested in Arab culture, members of the Scientific Council of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, experts and researchers, as well as invited guests.
The completion of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language is considered one of the largest linguistic projects in the Arab world and globally, and represents a pivotal milestone in the study of the Arabic language and its semantic history. It stands as the most significant Arab project implemented in accordance with modern standards for global historical dictionaries, providing researchers with documented linguistic material spanning from the earliest authenticated Arabic texts to the present day across twenty centuries, and offering a comprehensive historical map tracing the evolution of words and their meanings through the ages.
Through its vast linguistic corpus and verified data, the dictionary has contributed to laying a new knowledge foundation that supports the development of linguistic and research applications and advances efforts to build Arabic language models in the age of artificial intelligence.
This occasion represents a prominent Arab scholarly event that brings together the celebration of completing a historical Arabic dictionary and the launch of in-depth scientific discussions on the future of the Arabic language in the age of artificial intelligence. It further reinforces Doha’s position as a leading regional centre of knowledge and linguistics and underscores its role in supporting Arabic linguistic research and modern language technologies.
The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies launched the project to develop a historical dictionary of the Arabic language on 25 May 2013. These efforts culminated in the completion of a historical dictionary comprising nearly 300,000 lexical entries and a textual corpus of approximately one billion words, structured, dated and fully documented.
The dictionary is distinguished by its comprehensive documentation of Arabic vocabulary from its earliest usage in inscriptions and texts, tracing changes in word forms and meanings within their textual contexts and following the chronological trajectory of this development. Its electronic portal presents the dictionary’s content, enables searching within the textual corpus, and offers a range of linguistic, textual and statistical services.
On Thursday, 18 December 2025, coinciding with World Arabic Language Day, the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language announced the launch of its new electronic portal. The initiative aims to enhance the presence of Arabic in the digital space and facilitate access to its historical lexicographical material through a modern interface and advanced search tools serving researchers and those interested in the Arabic language worldwide.
Source: GCO QATAR
