In line with the Qatar-Germany Year of Culture, Qatar National Library (QNL) just opened its new exhibition, ‘Arab and German Tales - Transcending Cultures’.

The exhibition demonstrates how some of the best-known tales from both Arab and German and wider Western cultures developed from common roots, splitting over the centuries to reflect the societies that adopted them.

The exhibition aims to show the transcultural value of narrative traditions as a shared cultural heritage, throwing into focus mutual influences, shared ideas, and cultural transfer between the Arab world and Germany through storytelling.

The exhibition features many rare ancient pieces, including Egyptian tales written on papyri, such as the story of Sinuhe, dating from the XII dynasty.

It also feature a cuneiform tablet with the Epic of Gilgamesh from the 13th century BC; stories of the Arabian Nights and the world-renowned fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Examinations of the famed One Thousand and One Nights through the Arabic oral tradition are also included, before it was adapted and amended by European writers such as the Brothers Grimm.

Samples of the original Arabic handwriting of the famous German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe are also presented at the exhibition.  

The Minister of State HE Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari,  Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, Member of Advisory Council, HE Hans Udo Muzel, German Ambassador to Qatar, and Dr. Sohair Wastawy, Executive Director of QNL, were present at the exhibition, along with several other dignitaries and diplomats, The Peninsula reported. 

Image credits:

Cover image - The Peninsula, inline image - Edmund Dulac.