Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre achieves Guinness World Record with landmark reading session
The Kalima Reading Club brought together 226 participants from 69 nations at Zayed National Museum to set a new world record, underscoring the transformative power of reading across cultures.
The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre has achieved a significant milestone, setting a Guinness World Record through its celebrated Kalima Reading Club. The record was established when 226 participants representing 69 nationalities gathered for a single reading session at Zayed National Museum, held in partnership with Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Humanities.
Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the Centre, remarked that this achievement embodies the UAE leadership’s vision for promoting reading and intellectual engagement across society. The record serves as a powerful testament to the Centre’s mission of transforming reading into a meaningful vehicle for bringing diverse communities together around shared knowledge and cultural understanding.
The distinguished gathering centred on a discussion of “Bedouin and Abbasid Cultural Identities: The Arabic Majnun Layla Story” by Ruqayya Yasmine Khan, masterfully translated from English into Arabic by Ahmad Ebish. The work examines profound themes of love, identity and human connection through the classical narrative of Majnun Layla, situated within its rich Bedouin and Abbasid cultural contexts.
The session featured contributions from leading academics, including Hana Subhi, Professor of French Language and Literature at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, and Bilal Orfali, Professor of Arabic Language and Islamic Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. Fatima Ibrahim Al Ameri, writer and editor at the Centre, provided skilled moderation throughout the discussion.
This remarkable achievement forms part of the Centre’s “Community Campaign to Support Sustainable Reading”, an initiative that launched during National Reading Month 2025 and continues to flourish throughout 2026 as part of the “Year of the Family”. During the first half of this year alone, the campaign has reached more than 62,000 individuals, demonstrating the profound appetite for literary engagement across the Emirates.
The record reflects the Centre’s broader strategic vision: strengthening the Arabic language’s cultural presence, fostering sustainable reading practices, and nurturing the development of a knowledge-based society. The diversity of nationalities represented underscores reading’s remarkable capacity to transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, broadening perspectives and creating meaningful spaces for genuine human interaction and exchange.
Source: WAM