On December 20th, 2023, the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO) in Cairo hosted an inaugural ceremony for the Anawati Chair which is dedicated to interreligious dialogue and the deconstruction of extremist and exclusivist discourses. Supported by the by European Union's delegation in Egypt and other partners, the chair is named in honor of the Dominican Fr. Georges Anawati (Ar. Qanawātī). Born in 1905 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Greek Orthodox family from Syria, Anawati entered the Dominican Order in 1934 and completed studies in Lebanon, France, Egypt, Algeria, and Canada (Ph.D, University of Montreal). Academically, Anawati authored some 230 publications with a focus on Islamic philosophy, especially Ibn Sīnā (d.1037), theology, and Sufism. He was the founding director of IDEO and led the institution from 1953-1984. He passed in his room at IDEO in 1994 on the Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas (January 28th), the medieval theologian whose theological and philosophical tradition he greatly admired.

(The current director of IDEO, Fr. Emmanuel Pisani, O.P., introduces the Anawati Chair last month.)

The chair’s first phase extends until 2027 and will include a series of opportunities for education and training in interreligious and intercultural dialogue. The first major event takes place next month from February 4th - 7th in Abu Dhabi (U.A.E.) and will gather students to reflect in a variety of significant ways on the Document on Human Fraternity signed five years ago by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr. Aḥmed al-Ṭayyeb. Additional training sessions are already scheduled for May, 2024, and July, 2025.

(Dr. Rehām ʿAbdullāh Salāma, director of Al-Azhar’s Observatory for Combating Extremism, offers remarks at the establishment of the Anawati Chair.)

We congratulate the IDEO community on this important initiative and wish them every success as the Anawati Chair’s activities commence. Dialogue Across Borders will be following these activities with great interest.

For further information about the Anawati Chair, please see IDEO's website here.

With best wishes,

Matthew Anderson

Director - Center for Arab-West Understanding

Executive Editor - Dialogue Across Borders

January 28th, 2024

If you would like to change your subscription to our quarterly newsletter only, you can do this by writing us at [email protected].