The Qatari Forum for Authors hosted author and traveller Dr Abdul Rahman al-Mahmoud in an episode of the ambassadors of Qatari literature event.
The event, which was moderated by writer and translator Dhafer Aydin Darkoushi shed light on his works translated from Arabic into other languages and on his books, which showed his great passion for travel literature.
Dr al-Mahmoud talked about travel literature and the most important thing that distinguishes it from other types of literature, such as stories, novels, theatre, and others, which depend on the imagination of the writer, while travel literature depends on the tangible reality through the trip itself to a country. He pointed out that the trip is not just travel, but rather is contact with the environment, nature, and people, and learning about the behaviour of others, customs and traditions, and conveying them accurately without bias.
He also spoke about his book The History of Arabic Literature, which was translated into Russian as a syllabus for a master’s degree at one of the Ukrainian universities where he worked as a professor for many years, in addition to his establishment of the Khalil bin Ahmed Al Farahidi Centre for teaching Arabic there.
