Modernity and Renewal Conference emphasizes need to protect and preserve heritage

Participants in the conference, which was held by the Union of Arab Writers in cooperation with Damascus University and the General Union of Craftsmen under the title “Modernity and Renewal in the Arab Heritage”, discussed many themes that focused on Arab heritage, the concept of modernity and techniques for its preservation and documentation, in addition to the importance of applied sciences, creative techniques and the critical approach that contributes to its conservation and continuity.

Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Dr. Adnan Muslim, underlined the importance of this conference, which sheds light on heritage and modernity, and the connection of this concept to the literary, intellectual and philosophical aspect. He pointed out that the conference’s themes are a scientific, cultural, intellectual and social activity in which researchers in Syrian universities and other Arab universities exchange their ideas.

Editor-in-Chief of the Arab Heritage Journal, Dr. Farouk Aslim highlighted the importance of this conference, which is being held at Damascus University with the aim of shedding light on transformations and reaching the best in the history of Arab civilization, especially in thought and literature. More than 20 researchers from the Writers Union, Qatar universities and some Arab universities and those concerned with preserving the tangible and intangible heritage participated in the conference.

“Our Arab nation has a heritage that qualifies it to occupy its proper place in the human society,” Doctor in the Arabic language department and a member of the Arab Writers Union, Ali Diab said, indicating that the West began its renaissance based on what it took from the Arabs to reach what it has reached.

For his part, the doctor at the University of Damascus and a member of the Arab Writers Union, Ahmed Ali Muhammad, noted that modernity in Arab poetry began since the poet Badr Shaker al-Sayyab appeared on the cultural scene, because of his aspirations and new visions without giving up the originality of poetry.

Doctor at Tishreen University and a member of the Arab Writers Union, Muhammad Ismail Basal, said that the heritage that spanned for centuries, neither modernity nor global culture was able to destabilize it, as it possesses the foundations and roots that left its traces in all systems of cultural modernity, especially in the field of poetry.

The conference included honoring a number of scientific and research figures and a number of craftsmen and experienced people, in addition to an exhibition that included about 140 authentic Syrian crafts.

Inas Abdulkareem