Who we are

Kalima means "word" in Arabic and is an ambitious, non-profit initiative which funds the translation, publication, and distribution of high-quality works of classic and contemporary writing from other languages into Arabic.

Kalima is funded by a grant from the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and benefits from the backing of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

What we do

Every year we will select 100 candidate titles of classic, contemporary and modern titles from around the world to be translated into Arabic. We hope this number will increase as our funding grows.

In summary, Kalima will focus on the following activities:

Selecting quality titles across all genres.
Funding quality publishing houses across the Arab World to translate, print, and distribute the selected titles.
Supporting marketing and distribution initiatives for books by introducing new and effective distribution channels and upgrading existing ones.
Investing in new translators to encourage more and better quality translators in the future.
Becoming the first 'marketers' of books in Arabic on a major scale.