The Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute

The Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo has provided a special funding for 2006-2008 for the purchase and cataloguing of new Arabic literature, especially in the area of broad political and social debate.

The special funding is to strengthen the dialogue that is the purpose of the Institute and which aims at providing relevant information to readers in Denmark in order to enable them to follow the rich and varied debate about political, social and religious topics. The reader groups targeted are immigrant and refugee intellectuals whose mother tongue is Arabic, as well as Danish researchers and students able to read Arabic.

Primarily recently published literature is purchased but also earlier published, not readily available works by influential authors are included when found. Scholarly literature on Islam in general as well as its numerous, often conflicting fractions are seen as important for a deeper understanding of the religious aspects of public life in the Middle East. 

Fiction and poetry offer structured insight into people's personal lives and the challenges they face, and the artist's prose and poetry best depicts complex personal interaction. For that reason new literary works of all genres are acquired, also to ensure potential future translations of Arabic literature into Danish - it is through reading living literature that the Danish reader best comes to understand the cultures of the Middle East

Books purchased by means of the special funding.