The Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah’s role in promoting multi-culturalism came to the fore in 2007. At home and abroad, the DAI was an active participant in several events designed to create understanding between cultures.

With offices established in the historic American Mission Hospitals, now the Amricani Cultural Centre, DAI director general Sheikha Hussah invited the “new neighbors”, half a dozen ministers from the adjacent Protestant and Orthodox churches, over for tea. The Amricani also hosted an interfaith dialogue roundtable led by Ali El Samman, president of the Committee for Interfaith Dialogue and Islamic Relations at the Supreme Islamic Council in Egypt and president of the International Union of Muslim-Christian-Jewish Dialogue and Peace Education in France. Sheikha Hussah spoke on “The importance of an open mind and self-awareness in creating understanding between cultures” at the Kuwait National Committee for Education, UNESCO and UNESCO Schools Affiliate seminar, in Kuwait City and, travelling to Austria, on the “Paths and Pitfalls of Interreligious Understanding” at the Salzburg Trilogue.

Collection objects were also ‘visiting’ Austria, where loans to the Kreuz Ritter Pilger, Krieger, Abenteurer exhibition were on display at Schloss Schallaburg, in Schallaburg, Austria. The Pearls exhibition continued at the Abu Dhabi International Pearl Festival and new loans were included in The Shining Princess exhibition in the Museum of Kyoto, in Japan and the Le Chant Du Monde exhibition at the Louvre Museum, France.

Cultural Season 12 drew to a close and Cultural Season 13 got off to a good start in 2007. In addition to lectures and concerts, Richard III: an Arab tragedy written and directed by young Kuwaiti director Sulayman al-Bassam made its Kuwait debut, before moving on to London, Washington, DC and then back to Europe. Japanese-Kuwaiti joint excavation in the Raya/al-Tur area of the Sinai Peninsula continued and DAI participated in excavations of sites in al-Sabbiya and Kadhama in Kuwait. Yemen was the destination for the DAI Cultural Expedition and Sheikha Hussah travelled to Milano, Italy to meet with mayor Letizia Brichetto Arnaboldi Moratti to discuss the experience of women in leadership roles.Two teams of library specialists, one from American University of Cairo and the other from Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, visited the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah during the Cultural Season 13. Several issues of Bareed ad-Dar and Hadeeth ad-Dar were published, providing a full account of DAI activities.

Promoting understanding between cultures: that is an important part of the DAI mission. Whether it was direct, through interfaith dialogue, or indirect, by sharing knowledge, 2007 was a year of opportunities well met.