By Alan George

Twenty years ago France and 19 Arab countries resolved to take practical steps to defuse political and cultural prejudices and misunderstandings which have underlain European-Arab relations at least since the times of the Crusades.

The fruit of that bold initiative is now firmly established on the cultural landscape of Paris. “The public knows it,” affirms the Arab World Institute’s (AWI) Egyptian Director-General, Nasser El Ansary.

His point is underlined by the number of visitors the Institute receives, currently around one million a year. Its exhibitions routinely receive between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors. Some 5000 classes from French schools —mainly but not solely from the Paris area — visit the Institute annually.

Although a cultural centre, the AWI owes its origins to hard commercial and political considerations. The idea arose in the period following the oil price hikes triggered by the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Arab states’ incomes rocketed and governments in the region were launching ambitious development programmes which offered lucrative opportunities for foreign — including French — companies.

France, meanwhile, was taking an increasingly independent line in its political relations with the Middle East, adopting a more even-handed approach to the Arab-Israeli dispute at a time when most of the rest of the western world was still firmly on Israel’s side and showed little sympathy for the injustice suffered by the Palestinians, which was the root cause of the entire conflict. French even-handedness was something Arab governments wished to encourage.

Both sides understood their respective aims would be furthered by an erosion of the deep prejudices about the Arabs and Islam harboured by sections of the French and wider European public. Although a cultural establishment, the Institute was “a way of achieving a political objective via a cultural route,” says Mr El Ansary.

France and the Arab states agreed in principle in 1974 to establish the AWI and the formal foundation documents were signed in 1980. Initially, the Institute — which is funded 60 per cent by the French Foreign Ministry and 40 per cent by the Arab states — was essentially an administrative operation, housed in non-descript offices pending the construction of its permanent premises.

Every two years the library organises the Euro-Arab Book Show, bringing together major Arab publishing houses and European publishers

This new building, one of the more audacious new structures in the French capital, opened in 1987 on a site previously occupied by the 12th century monastery of Saint-Victor and the 16th century Halle aux Vins.

Designed by a group of leading architects — Jean Nouvel, Gilbert Lezenes, Pierre Soria and the Architecture Studio — the nine-storey AWI incorporates traditional Arab architectural themes in an unashamedly modernist building. The southern facade, for example, boasts 240 metal sun-screens with geometric patterns. Each is adjusted electronically hourly to take account of brightness levels outside. These screens, which create intricate light patterns within the building, are a conscious echo of the traditional wooden screens, or moucharabiehs, of Middle Eastern houses which, while shielding residents from the sun, also allow people to look out without being observed from the outside.

A core element of the AWI is the library stocked with 55,000 books in Arabic, French, English, Spanish and Italian, 1,200 magazines and some 50 Arabic learning aids including CD ROMs. It includes a 5,000-book lending library and offers a bibliographic research service.

Every two years the library organises the Euro-Arab Book Show, a unique event bringing together major Arab publishing houses and European publishers with an interest in the Arab world.

A so-called mediadrome offers a wide range of works in French for young people and a representative selection of children’s books from Arab countries.

An audiovisual room contains nine computer cubicles where visitors can access a vast range of digitised material on the Arab world: 12,500 pictures; 440 documentaries; over 600 hours of music. Daily broadcasts of television programmes direct from the Arab world are also available.

A Centre for Arab Language and Civilisation offers courses in classical Arabic and in Arabic dialects and workshops examining the origins of Arab civilisation. The AWI arranges film programmes and organises numerous public meetings and seminars.

Our two regions are forging ever closer economic and political ties but there is no room for complacency

Typical of the AWI’s special events are an exhibition on Egypt’s Coptic Christians, (see the following article) which opened in May, and a year-long series of lectures on, and concerts of, Arabo-Andalusian music, embracing examinations of derived musical forms such as the fado of Lisbon, Greece’s rebetiko and Turkey’s bachraf.

Past exhibitions have included topics as diverse as ‘Jordan in the Footsteps of Archaeologists’, ‘Morocco: Urban and Domestic Art’, ‘Photographs of Arabia: Hejaz 1907-1917’, ‘Khalil Jibran: Artist and Visionary’, ‘Le Maroc de Matisse’ and ‘Sudan: Kingdoms on the Nile’.

Twenty years after its foundation, the AWI has come of age, but its underlying aims remain as valid today as in 1980. “Misconceptions about the Arab world are still rife in Europe,” said Mr El Ansary. “Mistrust runs deep on both sides, fuelling such phenomena as anti-Arab racism here in the West.” He concluded: “Our two regions are forging ever closer economic and political ties through programmes such as the European Union’s Barcelona Process. While we believe that we have achieved much, there is no room for complacency. We feel that our task of encouraging a wider understanding and appreciation of Arab culture remains of enormous importance to both sides.”

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