As the Arab world struggles to preserve the Arabic language as it is increasingly overshadowed by the English-speaking world, there are institutions like Leiden University that have dedicated over 400 years to this language crusade as manifested through its rarest collection of manuscripts and scrolls. “The chair of Arabic was founded in 1613, which makes it one of the oldest in Europe,” says Dr Luit Mols, the curator of Middle East, West and Central Asia at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, who curated the upcoming 400-year anniversary of Islamic Studies exhibition as it makes its stop in Abu Dhabi.

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