The Living Chronicles of Arabia

Culture as a celebration

We bring the desert wisdom of the past and the present to the global citizen of today, ensuring that the profound intellectual legacy of the Arab world is not lost to time, but rather, translated for the future.

For the young minds. For the new minds.

At the intersection of a glorious legacy and modern screen, Kitaba serves as a cultural messenger.

Philosophy

Blend Arab heritage, emotion, function, and timeless aesthetics to curate meaningful discourses around the world. Making the classical Arab world readable, collectible and contemporary. To give enduring Arab voices a contemporary life in other languages. To let Arab heritage travel as friendship, dialogue and shared human memory.

Approach

Text-first. Images & videos next. Project-based. Patron-funded. Each work begins with research, rights and a definitive translation. Editions are carefully designed, limited in number and placed with readers, libraries and institutions.

Purpose

To transmit the intellectual and artistic legacy of the Arab world into new linguistic and cultural contexts. To build a permanent bridge of books, ideas and collaborations. To create a slow, enduring archive for future generations.

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We identify works of lasting cultural value and establish authoritative source texts and rights.

Translate

Scholarly, reader-centred translations that carry meaning, tone and historical context.

Craft

Circulate

Thoughtful editing, design and limited editions produced to archival standards.

Patron-supported placement with readers, libraries and institutions across cultures.

Discovery

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The Process

Featured Works

Al-Khiṭaṭ by al-Maqrīzī

المواعظ والاعتبار بذكر الخطط والآثار

BOOKSHELF

طوق الحمامة

المعلقات

Tawq-al-Hamamah

Al-Mu'allaqat

Written in 11th-century al-Andalus by Ibn Ḥazm of Córdoba (994–1064), this classic prose work is one of the most refined meditations on love in world literature. Blending personal observation, anecdote and psychological insight, it explores longing, union, separation, fidelity and the ethics of affection. Set within the cultivated society of Islamic Spain, the book is both an intimate study of the human heart and a portrait of a sophisticated literary civilisation.

Written in the 15th century by the Egyptian historian Taqī al-Dīn al-Maqrīzī (1364–1442), this monumental work is the most detailed topographical and cultural record of medieval Cairo and Fustat. It documents mosques, schools, streets, markets, monuments, institutions and everyday urban life, preserving the memory of a city at its intellectual and architectural height. Part history, part urban archive.

Among the most celebrated works of early Arabic poetry, the Muʿallaqāt is a collection of pre-Islamic odes traditionally attributed to seven poets of 6th–early 7th centuries. These poems preserve the desert landscape, the codes of honour, love, loss and the nomadic imagination at the foundation of Arabic literary culture. Revered for their linguistic perfection and emotional power, they stand at the beginning of the long written memory of the Arab world.

Let's create something timeless

By supporting Kitaba, you ensure the profound wisdom of the Arab world is translated and kept alive for the modern mind. Join us as a Guardian of the Script and help bridge a thousand years of history.

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Kitaba is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to the digitisation and translation of classic Arabian texts. We aim to inspire a global audience through the enduring power of the written word.

Supported by the guardians of heritage.
Open to the world.

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