Symposium and axes

The Arabic-Islamic civilization is proud of its embrace to the epistemic treasures and the keys of sciences�. Documents are repertories of these treasures.
Old Arabs paid intensive attention to the scientific researches, documents & documentation. They even put fixed scientific standards to the study of document as far as it is considered an active element servicing the human civilization. They believed that document is the conscience of the nation, its awakened memory and its connective message through generations and other civilizations as well.
Between 14-16/10/2001, the Arab Club of Information had organized the first scientific symposium concerning the Arabic document, aiming to keep the scientific benefit of the document through ages.
Thereby, 4 axes concerning the history and the importance of the document in the society had been discussed, a long with the technological method of protecting document.
However, those axes were divided on six additional meetings in addition to several interpositions that had been proposed by professors and specialists in archives and documents.

The history of Arabic document

Five working papers had been discussed through the first axis of the symposium a long with several interpositions.
The researcher Souhil Malathi /Syria/ initiated his discussion on "Documents and libraries in the Arabic-Islamic civilization" by demonstrating the importance of books and documents in maintaining the heritage and transforming it through generations.
Before Islam, Arabs were illiterates, who knew nothing but books of religion. Actually the holy Koran called people of other heavenly religions the people of the book. Furthermore, poetry used to be communicated orally and it was rarely written, such as the (Mo�lalkat ) (Epics used to be suspended on the walls of the K�aba)
As the matter of fact, the history of books and libraries was really activated with the emergence of the Islamic mission, along with the occurrence of the holy Koran which is considered a turning point in the whole human cognition and doctrines.
The holy Koran was the first book in Arabic. Moslems paid a great deal of attention to the writing and the accuracy of its verses in order to protect them from any oral deviation by non-Arabic Moslems.
In other words, Both the holy Koran and the Hadith (prophetic tradition) initiated the process of documentation in Islam. Then with the Islamic conquests, many Arabic compilations in various sciences were being written and organized.
When Mo�wia Ibn Abi Suphian (caliph) had the credit of improving and promoting the movement of libraries, the orthodox caliphs had established divans that functioned on preparing and preserving important correspondences, which resemble the function of documentation center.

In the working paper of the researcher Firial Alfreh /Kuwait/ (instead of Shaza Aoun) she discussed "The history of Arabic document from authenticity and novelty." and stated that the early writing used to be on the ancient papyrus.

The researcher, Amina Ayob Khalil /Jordan/ started her working paper by discussing "Al Quds documents regarding books and libraries along with their rule in presenting the civilized face of the holy city" during the ottoman epoch. Where documents of that age are considered the most important resource of information about AlQuds. Moreover, they reveal facts, details and aspects of the cultural, economic, social and political life thereby and present the bright sides of the city.
Finally, Prof. Khalil concluded by concentrating on the necessity of preserving those rare documents from loss.

In the working paper of the researcher Ahmad Jalal Al Tadmori (U.A.E), "Arabic documents in ottoman archives". He praised the speech of Prof. Khalil especially when she said that the ottoman archives are of the most essential historical resources that have to be carefully examined and figured out, Because of the richness of their papers and documents concerning the Arab world.
Through his lecture, The researcher Kasem Othman Nour /Sudan/ spotlighted the age of the document in Sudan, which belongs to the early days of Islam.
Nevertheless, documents became deep-rooted in the reign of Amro bno Al Asse.
Therewithal, Dr. Nour briefed us about the historical document center in Sudan, as far as it is considered on of the most ancient centers in Africa and the Arab world.
Actually, It comes in the second place after the Egyptian document center. Moreover, this center approximately contains 1 million documents that varies from state to foundations documents along with some historical documents that are related to the Mahdian era and the Turkish rule on Sudan as well.
In his interposition, The researcher Mahmoud Rammal /Lebanese university/, focused on what had been said on documents in the ottoman epoch and the Islamic reign. Documents don't belong to an individual or a state; on the contrary they are a heritage that represents the whole Arab nation.
(Mo�alakat) For instance don't belong to Hedjaz or to a specific poet. Those documents actually reflect the image of the whole Arab nation, the researcher Rammal added.
Furthermore, There are a lot of Arabic documents in Turkey, France, England and Greece, all those documents don't belong to one country.
In this respect, an Arabic web site referring to the Arabic documents has to be established, and those documents have to be photocopied in order to be at the service of all the Arabic states. Therefrom, by providing an opportunity of getting acquainted with the history of the Arabic world as one unit, we would be doing our Arabic nations and Arabic document a sublime favor.
Through her interposition, Nora Alsalt concentrated on the scientific accuracy that had been granted to documents in the Islamic reign,
Which is the same mission that this symposium had been originally made for, Along with unifying our idioms such as archives and others in the respect. "But what is the actual status of the Arabic document" asked the researcher, and she continued there had been an Arabic document pre-Islam and an Arabic document after-Islam.
We have been informed of luminous hints about Hammurabi law, along with the Egyptian & Mesopotamian civilizations pre-Islam, in addition to Ras Shamra the first alphabet in history. But on the other land we have never heard of the Arabic documents pre-Islam? Nevertheless, we are proud of what we heard of the history of Arabic document after Islam.

Referring to the interposition of the researcher Mustafa Areesh, he praised what the researcher Amina Ayob had said in her interposition about the necessity of photocopying documents concerning Alquds. Especially after what we recently heard of the Israeli attack against the orient house in Alquds, Where all the documents that prove the legitimate Palestinian right on Alquds were confiscated. Furthermore, he suggested several recommendations to be proposed to UNESCO demanding by the recovery of all the documents that had been confiscated by Israel. And he furthered:
Referring to the Ottoman archives I confirm to brother Jalal: that a meeting concerning the archives has to be held.
In May 2001, a gathering had been organized in Riyadh. Where the Arabic share in the ottoman archives had been discussed and several recommendations were proposed suggesting a kind of rapprochement with the ottoman archives centers. On the other hand the ottoman archives centers demonstrated a sense of willingness and interest.
Ever since agreements between ottoman archives centers and some Arab states have been signed.

Information and Internet technology:
The technology of preserving and recovering document:

The second pivot was discussed in the second session, where 3 working papers had been proposed. The researcher Ibrahim Issa /Lebanon/ highlighted " the techniques of preserving documents" therewith he discussed the methods of protection for the original documents from all the natural, environmental effects such as corrosion, and how documents are to be saved in computers. He also pointed an example out of the Lebanese legislation concerning methods of documentary evidence, testimony and presumptions, Where the judge can visually or auditory register according to his memory and records.
In other world every document that didn't carry a signature or is not dated loses its value.
The researcher Hani Al-Khouri /Syria/ spotlighted on "the book and the future of the electronic publication" as he enumerated the significant traits of the electronic publication through the Internet.

Moreover, Working through the international communication network would necessarily produce electronic documents, which would last much longer than the usual ones in case those documents are perpetually recopied in accordance with the system changes.
That was also assured by the researcher Bashar Abbas in his working paper "The electronic documents and their texture along with preserving and recovering techniques"
He concentrated on the necessity of the technical and professional arrangements along with adopting the electronic signature, As far as it is considered a legal matter dealt by banks and foundations.
In other words, it is not possible for foundations to risk their funds /capitals by electronically signing if that wouldn't have been secure as much as the manual signature.
Moreover, the mechanism of the electronic signature has distinctive features that provide high level of security such as counting the number of letters, columns and tables that absolutely make the document unable to be falsified.
The researcher Mohammed Rammal focused on the matter of the technical training, he also added that depending on increasing the number of computers only is not sufficient for obtaining the technical development. Prof. Ramml continued that we have OCR program, but we have no specialized thesaurus. But all the specialized thesaurus and OCR are in Arabic language. However, the most crucial thing to do is to set programs that work in Arabic in order to be able to obtain at least 99% of accuracy. Then we would be able to preserve documents in shorter time if we had had OCR.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to work on Arabic language to establish new programs along with Arabic programs of recovery. However, as long the Arabic document is different, then a need of paying Attention to Arabic language, software and the specialized thesaurus emerges.
In other words, the establishment of legal thesaurus programs, administrative and specialized thesaurus software in order to be later in use and recovery within multi data list.
Mhd. Abdel Kareem Al Shatti concentrated on the necessity of founding a united system to treat documents.

Arabic Document and its Rule in Society.

The 4th and 3rd session of the 3rd pivot concentrated on the rule of the Arabic document.
The pivot spread on nine researchers and interpositions. In the initial working paper "Art documentation and the identity of the home land" The artist Ghazi Al Khalidi {Syria} spotlighted on 3 basic axis of the document / number-place-date/. He expressed that by the number of the document, we can stop at the document we need .As well as the place, which help us in geographically identifying the document. For instance the painting that was drawn by Vincent Van Gogh (the Dutch painter), where he dedicated it to Paul Jojan in order to remind him by the place and characteristics of his room.
Moreover, the artist Tahseen, as the matter of fact drew the painting of Saladin receiving the keys of Alquds from the crusaders in order to highlight the importance of the palace where the great Saladin defeated the crusaders.


That also can be applied on time, in other words going back to the primary paintings on walls of caves (Altamira & Lascaux), we realize that those paintings can't be repeated as long as their time has gone forever.
Therefore, he concentrated on the importance of the copied or painted documents through technical documentation panorama. Therein, The artist Al Khalidi presented some scenes on the technical documentation, he concentrated on its necessity for the artistic work as well.

The researcher Burgeos Azzam /Syria/ talked about "Basis of detecting documents" and the method that documents are detected by. Which consists of collecting materials in accordance with the legal and the objective content, in addition to the internal & external characteristics and its date and place as well.
The researcher Ahmad Al Mohammed /Syria/ spotlighted on the gradual advancement of the types of writings. Starting from clayey inscriptions, papyrus and other various materials, up to the usual papers that we know in our days, which is considered a competitor and substitute for all that had been used previously. The researcher ended his interposition by concentrating on the necessity of depending on the electronic writing as a civil medium that can connect and translate Arab civilization to the west, especially in the age of translation.

In the lecture titled "The utilization of scanners in the Electronic publication of Arabic documents" The researcher Amer Kandilji /Iraq/ discussed the significance of preserving the shapes and content of archival documents through transforming them to the electronic shape. He also explained the term "Electronic Publication" that depends on scanning as far as it's considered one of the techniques that deal with documents and important information.

During the 4th session, and in his working paper "laws, systems and tables that are related to documents in Arab states - legislation standards and their applicable provisions". The researcher Mustafa Areesh /Algeria/ clarified that producing legislation in the field of archives is of extreme importance, in order to control the systems, organize the methods of management, and finally to identify the progress of documents between the producers and the beneficiaries.
In other words, making a modern legislation for each state would be essential to undertake the archival messions. Thus, elements of success would be guaranteed for the progress of knowledge seekers.
Thereby, the lecturer divided his research into two parts. The first one was on the principles that were to be produced in the Algerian organizing legislation of the archives.
The second one concentrated on preparing applicable texts of the legislation. Nevertheless, when he compared between legislation in some states, he actually clarified the difference between legislation and organization.
The researcher Ghassan hamzah Senno /Lebanon/ discussed " The role of the legislative documents in the field of law and personal properties confirmation" according to documents in the religious court of Syda. Therefrom, he demonstrated the importance of the religious document as a rich and accurate resource of information.

The researcher Ahmad Mohammed Al Anzawi /Syria/ presented an interposition on " the rights of the intellectual properties along with the methods of preservation, according to religion and law". The researcher started by identifying the meaning of right and classifying its types, in order to distinguish the right that contains all kinds of intellectual creativity in, along with its origin and the legal, religious and moral lines. In order to protect and preserve documents from any kind of violation.

Under the title, "The rule of documents in the field of international law", the researcher Ali Rahhal /syria/ demonstrated that the international law is basically consisted of a huge collection of documents that had been confirmed and certified by states. Those documents are considered an essential resource that can be depended on in the process of any issue.
The researcher Basheer kawadri /Syria/ supported in his interposition "Legislation and document protection" what had been said in the previous interposition.
He continued by saying that we have to protect and make documents elements of cognition and subjects of inquiries. He also pointed that the utilization of public documents is not supposed to violate the provisions of legislation. Which can only be achieved through placing a distinctive stamp on each document that demonstrates its degree of secrecy.
In the interposition of the researcher Amer kandilgi he discussed the matter of coordinating laws and founding a unified law in the Arab states, in order to be able to establish for a qualified thesaurus for archives that can be generalized over the Arab states. The researcher added that The problem that emerges from the difference of accents between the eastern and the western sides of the Arab world makes the process of documentation difficult. Then he exemplified by the word compact disk, which is CD in one accent & disk in another. Hussein Shardan also focused on that problem in his interposition.
Mr. Emad Abu Eid stated that although laws & regulations that are related to documentary harmony mostly are internal, they might differ even in the same state. Which makes the objective of creating a unified law in this respect hard. Therefore, unifying regulations within the one state could only enable us to establish standards, and not necessarily unified laws and proceedings on the Arabic level.

The pioneer Arab experiments in the fields of preserving & organizing documents and formation.

The fourth axis included 12 researches that were divided on two sessions, in addition to some interpositions. This axis focused on exposing the pioneer Arabic experiments in the fields of documentation and archives.

The researcher Mouneer Al Ojaizi (Sudan) proposed the initial research under the title "The rule of the Arabic organization for agricultural development for furthering the agricultural documentation".
He also exemplified from the messions and services that are provided by the established divisions and units to help the Arabic agricultural documentation.
The organization worked on activating Arabic cooperation in the field of transporting agricultural intelligence, information and producing more accurate and comprehensive agricultural statistics better than any other local, national or international documentation center or specialized library.
The researcher also went into the efforts that had been exerted by the organization to support, develop and promote the capacity of the staff through preparing studies and seminars on improving Arab documentation centers.
In the interposition "The regional Arab branch of documents" The researcher Da'ad Hakeem /Syria/ spotlighted on the historical documents Center in the days of Syrian - Egyptian Union, which was subsidiary to the Ministry of Culture. The Center contained about 5 million documents. However, in Rome 1970, Arab governments negotiated on establishing a regional Arabic center that can elevate the sense of cooperation among Arab citizens and also can work with the International Council of Documents. Therein, the center was established in the presence of Arab delegations.
A mutual research presented by the researchers Anwar Baidon, Mazen Shihabi, Mazen Abdalah /Syria/ discussed "The Strategy of collecting, preserving and recovering information in the Arab center ACSAD".
The research demonstrated the Basic achievements of the center such as; researches, studies, training and projects on the documentary services that were achieved by organizing communications between Arab states in order to spread and exchange the results of researches and studies. The center also connected its documentation system with the similar international systems in order to ordinate and exchange information.

The researcher Emad Abu Eid /Jordan/ proposed his working paper "The expanded thesaurus-experiment and ambition". Thereby, he presented a description and analysis of the steps that occurred during the establishment and development of the expanded thesaurus as the largest Arabic thesaurus that contained all the fields of knowledge. In other words, in the age of information technology, the thesaurus became a post for information objective analysis.
However, This thesaurus would be the appropriate scientific base that other specialized Arab thesaurus can be derived from, It also would respond to the needs of libraries, documentation and information centers as well.
The researcher demanded by clear applicable plans that can propagate the thesaurus in order to guarantee its financial independence.
Furthermore, he suggested continuos training courses and workshops along with establishing a web site on the Internet to improve and guarantee the continuity of the thesaurus on the national, Arab and international levels.
The researcher Ahmad Al Rifai cooperated with the Eng. Kholoud Al Masri in a working paper under the title "National Agricultural Center experiment in the field of preserving and organizing documents". He concentrated on the importance of preserving and documenting the Syrian intellectual agricultural production as an agricultural data bank. The researcher also discussed the method of preserving information by using a beam of prefabricated software CDS/ISIS that are basically designed for non-digital databases in the field of automated administration.
Finally, he supported his research by analytical statistics on the number and sorts of visitors of the National Center NCIAD and the types of researches and studies in 1992-1998- 2000.
Mahmoud Dayrani /Syria/ presented a working paper on "the experiment of the Ministry of Health in the unions Archivists".
Thereby, He clarified that the experiment of the ministry of health in the field of documentation depended on preserving the medical registries in order to be available on demand, therein a system containing the registries that had been invested in 1998 was prepared. Information were withdrawn, preserved and transformed into an accessible electronic document.
Depending on the scanning study "Facts on documentation & archiving in Palestine" that was made at the end of 1999. The researcher Mohamad Bahis /Palestine/ assured that The research was made to face challenges, and surmount the obstacles that faced the establishment of the national Palestinian archives. It also aimed at realizing facts on the Palestinian document along with presenting the sufferance of Palestinian foundations under the occupation. However, The research came up with some conclusions and results such:
All the foundations that had been under that questionnaire were in short of Internet & e-mail technology.
No budgets were provided for developing the divisions of archives.
No efficient equipment for the process of maintaining and preserving documents were available.
Lack in the number of employees that work in the field of documentation and archives.
Weakness points in the science of overhauling, along with lack in the number of specialized laboratories.
An urgent need of adopting modern method for providing informative services to the public.

The researchers Mahmoud Rammal & Muna Al Ashkar (Lebanon) presented two mutual researches; the first one "Preserving the Lebanese heritage through reports of the Lebanese assembly" highlighted the importance of the legislative documents in reflecting the policies of ex-Governments, attitude of states and deputies toward the international affairs. The researcher also revealed the role of the center of informatics in improving the intersection between all aspects of the technology of information and the legal laws. However, The center was able to produce legal data on CD-ROM in order to facilitate the processes of recovery & preservation.
The second one " Modern technology and the legal document, according to the documentation of the official newspaper" demonstrated the documentary and technical characteristics of the official newspaper database.
This research also demonstrated that men of law are supposed to pay a great deal of attention to documents, as far as no jurist can neglect the role of documents since law is a science that depends on documents. The researcher came across the necessity of preserving documents, then he ended by focusing on the role electronic document as an urgent need.

In his interposition "Beirut official newspaper in the forgotten Lebanese press" the researcher Hilal Natut /Lebanon/ discussed the need of official press to express the governmental attitudes toward the issues at the moment. It also can defend the general policy of the government.


The researcher gave "Beirut Official Newspaper" as an example. Therewith, he discussed its characteristics, numeration and index, in addition to discussing the language of the newspaper, its value and methods of improvement as well.

In the research "Internet & dimensions in the field of preserving and recovering documents, The researcher Nabeela Bitar /Lebanon/ discussed the experiment of Al Nahar newspaper.
The Egyptian researcher Abu Al Soud Ibrahim introduced through his working paper "The experiment of AL AHRAM newspaper in preserving documents, and putting them at the service of beneficiaries".
Thereby, he discussed methods of management to the resources of information, and gaining information techniques along with the technical treatment to the process of indexing and listing. Ibrahim also discussed information and press services (reference - selective diffusion - lasted circle telephonic communication services- databases). The method of modern technology utilization in AL Ahram center (microfilm - CD - satellites) and the usage of computers.

Referring to interpositions during this axis, the researcher Monir Ojaizi discussed an important matter concerning /Agricultural Document / lecture which is water.

The researcher Samer Allam'a commented on an issue in the lecture of the researcher Da'ad Hakeem as she discussed the matter of the cultural dictionary that is predominated by the Moroccan accent. While the thesaurus that was produced after collecting idioms, describers, and non-describers, overcame that problem.
Local accents should not prevent our progress toward thesaurus. Many problems are facing non-describers that were overcome.
So, we hope that we'll provoke not disappoint the process of mutual national function.
The research Emad Abu Eid commented on the interposition of the researcher Amer Kandilgi about the united thesaurus �where he said "there are headlines of 8 or 10 united Arabic subjects". He continued "by now the Arabic foundation of cultures and sciences must have issued a list of the subjects largest headlines 4 volumes. Thus, recently we hear of the united thesaurus. So, we need a list that can simplify the process of automatic recovery of information along with coordination between cultural and scientific organizations & the 3 sponsors of this operation, and the process of recovery over all the Arab world and the Arab national information network".
The researcher also assured that the modern technique has determined the issue toward thesaurus.
Nevertheless, the united Arab headlines list was published by ALESCO, while the list of the great Arabic headlines was not published by ALESCO. Actually the commercial publisher published it and the publisher Sha'aban Khalifah prepared it.
As the matter of fact, the problem lies in non-modernization as Dr. Amer mentioned.
The Arab organization for education, Culture and Science has published a list of the Arabic headlines, which has never been modernized, so it remained in its original shape.
We, Abdel Hameed Shoman company, are ready to cooperate with ALECSO or with all Arabic organizations in the Arab World in order to produce the expanded thesaurus and to enrich it, enlarge it and develop it.
Nevertheless, we got assistance from other Arabic organizations like in subjects, idioms, suggestions, recommendation and notifications. So, we welcome any kind of help.
However, at the end of this pioneer symposium. We elevated number of general decisions to the second conference of Arabcin. In order to be confirmed such as recommendations to the official and public institutes, centers of documentation and researches. So, we count some of these recommendations such as:
Reorganization of national archives in Arab states.
Best investment of the proper technologies. Call for the establishment of documentation centers that are specialized in collecting, analyzing, organizing and preserving documents.
Applying modern methods of documentation, archives, libraries and information curriculums in order to preserve the soul of Arabic documents which represent the identity and memory of the Arab nation.
The symposium also demanded by expanding and pushing the movement of translation and writing in the fields of documentation & information forward. Thereby, it can gather the greatest amount of books, studies and specialized researches in this respect, that also can provide appropriate instruments for the Arabic documentalists through preparing and publishing specialized thesaurus along with accurate references that facilitate the process of documentation.


The full texts of The first scientific symposium concerning Arabic document day are available in arabic