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About
King Faisal
Center for Research and Islamic Studies
King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies was
founded in 1983 as an educational and intellectual arm
of King Faisal Philanthropic Foundation.
The King Faisal Foundation was established in 1976, in
memory of the late King Faisal ibn Abdulaziz a son of
Saudi Arabia's founder and the Kingdom's third
monarch(1964-1975). His Eight sons sought pursuing their
father's life-long objectives; serving Islam and Islamic
Civilization, preserving Islamic culture, and promoting
learning through the Islamic world, contributing to
alleviating human suffering through philanthropic
activities worldwide.
Since its inception The Foundation has embarked upon a
broad range of Islamic, cultural, and charitable
endeavors.
Of the many philanthropic activities of the Foundation
is the King Faisal International Prize, which was
established in 1979. It is one of the most widely known
international prizes. It rewards excellence in the
fields of Sciences, Medicine, Islamic Studies, Arabic
Literature, and the Service of Islam. Each of the five
Prize categories consists of a certificate summarizing
the laureate's work; a commemorative 24 carat, 200 gram
gold medal, uniquely cast for each Prize; and a cash
award of SR750,000 (US$200,000). Co-winners in any
category share the monetary grant. The Prizes are
awarded during a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under
the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia. By 2004, 167
distinguished laureates from 35 countries had been
recognized for their contributions.
As part of its objectives to promote learning,
KFF
sponsors scholarship programs for gifted Students. In
1981, the Foundation introduced a program that allows
outstanding Muslim students an opportunity to complete
their higher education. And in an effort to encourage
greater understanding between the Islamic and western
worlds, the Foundation and Prince Charles, The Prince of
Wales jointly announced in 1997 the launching of King
Faisal Foundation-Prince of Wales Chevening Scholarship.
The two annual scholarships are for the study of 'Islam
and the West' at the postdoctoral level. The Prince of
Wales Scholarship allows a Saudi candidate to undertake
a one-year research in the United Kingdom. The King
Faisal Foundation scholarship allows a British Scholar
to study for a year in Saudi Arabia.
In the field of Education,
KFF established The King
Faisal school in Riyadh , Effat National College for
Women in Jeddah city, and Prince Sultan College for
Tourism and Hotel Sciences, in Abha City. Together they
provide some of the best primary, secondary, and
tertiary education in Saudi Arabia. The most recent
venture into education is founding Alfaisal University,
a private university, headquartered in Riyadh.
The Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees
consisting of the late King Faisal 's sons. It is
self-financed through engaging in income-producing
activities.
King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies:
In conformity with the mission of the Foundation, King
Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies was
established in 1983 as an operational arm of the
Foundation, in the field of research and studies. The
Center is an independent, non-profit institution, and
is financed by the Foundation. It has its headquarter in
Riyadh, within the complex of the Foundation, which is a
landmark in Riyadh.
The Center is governed by a board of directors
consisting of prominent Saudi personalities, chaired by
HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal, currently the Kingdom's
Ambassador to the United State of America.
Mission
:
Contributing to the advancement of Islamic societies
through the conduct of research and issue-related
studies.
Objectives:
In order to accomplish its mission, The Center had set
its objectives as follows:
-
Support advanced and scientific research in Islamic
history and civilization, arts, social sciences
focused on Islam and the Islamic world.
-
Support research on current and contemporary issues
affecting the Islamic world.
-
Enhance dialogue, understanding, collaboration among
civilizations and nations.
-
Disseminate
information and knowledge about the contribution of
Islamic civilization to human heritage and highlight
the main distinguishing features of Islamic
civilization.
-
Providing information on the late King Faisal bin
Abdul Aziz, and his central role in the history of
Saudi Arabia and the modern Islamic world.
-
Training a
new generation of specialized scholars in the field
of Islamic studies, Arabic language, and social
sciences.
-
Collecting
information and data and creation of specialized
databases for researchers, translating a variety of
foreign works into Arabic.
Organizational
Structure
:
The Center consists of several departments: Research
and Studies Department; Library and Information
Department; Heritage and Culture Department;
Administrative and Financial Affairs Department, and
Technical Services and Installations Department.
Research and Studies
Department:
In conformity with its objectives, the Center focused
since its inception on promoting research activities,
conferences, lectures, publications, related to periods
of early and modern Islamic civilization and history.
Thus, the Center became one of the leading research
institutes in the Islamic world in this domain. However,
in the past five years, the Center witnessed a major
transformation in orientation and activities to keep
abreast of developments and challenges taking place in
the World, thereby becoming the Kingdom's main research
center and think tank dealing with multiple issues of
importance to Saudi Arabia, the Arab countries, Islamic
world, and the world at large. In 1999, the Center
created this department to accomplish the following
objectives:
-
Planning, setting,
and supervising research agenda of the Center.
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Promoting systematic studies on current issues and
challenges affecting Saudi Arabia, the Arab
countries, and the Islamic World.
-
Inviting and assigning teams to conduct studies and
provide relevant policy recommendations.
-
Encouraging scholars to research issues relating to
Saudi Arabia and the Arab, and Islamic worlds,
through fellowship, and re search support.
-
Organizing conferences, seminars, and workshops at
which important issues and their applications are
discussed and investigated.
. Encouraging
research, authorship and translations of non-Arabic
studies dealing with issues of concern to Saudi Arabia,
the Arabs and the Islamic World.
Establishing
working relationship and collaborating with academic and
research institutions, scholars, and researchers, from
the Kingdom and from abroad.
PROGRAMS AND
ACTIVITIES:
Research Activities:
KFCRIS researchers and associates are to carry out
research and prepare specialized or policy oriented
studies on contemporary issues affecting Saudi Arabia,
Arabs and the Islamic world. These studies are
published by the Center.
Research Scholarships:
KFCRIS supports research projects pertaining to its
fields of interest. Thus, The Center hosts local and
foreign researcher or specialist for a specified period
of time needed to prepare their studies. In the past
four years, KFCRIS has hosted more than thirty foreign
researchers and specialists in order for them to
complete studies on issues related to Islam, Islamic
thought, Saudi foreign relations, Saudi politics, and
Arab -American Relations.
Conferences, Symposiums,
Lectures and Seminars:
KFCRIS organized numerous conferences, lectures,
symposia and workshops. Outstanding decision makers,
academics, specialized scholars, both from Saudi Arabia
and abroad were invited to participate in these
activities.
Local , Regional, and
International Collaborations
KFCRIS attaches great importance to establishing and
developing cooperation with similar local, regional,
and international institutions, think tanks and
research centers in order to conduct research and
exchange expertise, printed material and publications.
The Center has concluded a number of memorandums of
understanding and agreements with number of
governmental and private institutions in Saudi Arabia,
and beyond in the following spheres:
-
Joint
research projects.
-
Exchange
of printed material.
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Coordinating with other institutions to host their
delegates at conferences, lectures and Seminars.
-
Joint
publications.
-
Exchange
expertise, visits, hosting scholars and researchers
PUBLICATIONS
KFCRIS has an intensive publishing Program. By the end
of August, 2004, the Center had published more than 300
publications in form of books (original or translated)
and monographs covering issues that fall within the
scope of its interests. The publications are published
in Arabic, and occasionally in English. All books and
monographs are published in series : Contemporary
Studies Series, Translated Books Series, University
thesis Series, Islamic Studies series, King Faisal
Studies Series, Heritage studies Series.
In addition to books and monographs, the Center
published the proceedings of its conferences, Symposia
and lectures and academic journals including: Journal of
Linguistic Studies, Islam and Contemporary World, and
'Issues', an English Journal.
The Center also publishes through its subsidary Alfaisal
Cultural Publishing House general books and magazines
including, Al-Faisal Cultural monthly magazine ,
Al-Faisal Science, and Al-Faisal for Literature.
The Center has its own printing press, thus all the
requirements of publishing are done in House.
Library and
Information:
KFCRIS Library is one of the largest libraries in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It contains the following
sections:
Main Library, the Database Section, the Manuscript
Section, the Children's Library, and the Computer Center.
The Main Library provides accommodation for more than
one million books. The collection covers the fields of
Islamic Studies and Islamic Civilization. The main
reading room houses frequently used reference books in
Arabic, English, and several other languages. There is a
separate room for periodicals, of which the Center keeps
some 3,500 titles in more than ten languages, including
a large number of rare and out of print magazines,
journals, and newspapers. The library's primary
bookstore is equipped with computer controlled mobile
book stacks. The system is known as "Compactus" and
provides a very high storage capacity coupled with quick
and easy access to books. These automated book stacks
also offer enhanced protection of the book stock and
enable continuous tracking of books in use.
As part of the Center's continuing efforts to improve
bibliographical resources, the Library has been working
on a central register of Arab writers. The number of
individual names in this register has now reached
70,000, not counting variant names that often occur for
classical authors. This register provides information on
Arab authors from all ages and upto modern times.
Records also include authors' dates and field of
specialization. One of the aims of the register is to
establish authoritatively the correct forms of authors'
names. This is an important step toward standardization
in Arab bibliography.
A related project is the assembly of specialized index
files to enable researchers to search bibliographical
references in the database using secondary descriptors,
such as names of commentators or titles of commentaries.
Another of the center's innovations was the invention of
a complete library classification system. Custom made
for Islamic and Arabic documents, this new system was
designed to be both comprehensive and easy to use. A
detailed description of the system has been published in
two volumes, entitled al-Faisal, meknez 'erebiyy
shamil fiy 'uluwm l-hedareh l-,islamiyyeh, a
comprehensive library classification system for Islamic
science and civilization. This classification system has
been systematically employed by the center to organize
its entire range of library holdings. The system has
facilitated access to all the library collections and
improved its internal documentation and referencing by
providing the Center with a comprehensive method of
cataloging its wide array of holdings.
The Center has also placed special emphasis upon the
task of indexing its collection of Arabic periodicals in
a computerized database. The Reader's Services Division
offers readers a variety of services including
bibliographical searches of the database and computer
print-outs of references available in the library.
Searches may be requested in person, by post, or over
the phone from within the Kingdom or abroad. This is in
addition to the library's personalized bibliographical
update service which helps students and researchers keep
abreast of the latest developments in using the
library. They may apply for a membership card which
entitles them to the use of all of the library services.
Database Section:
A further demonstration of the leading role played by
the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies
in the service of scientific research is its vigilance
in providing exemplary and efficient library services to
researchers in the field of Islamic science and
civilization. Because of the excellent resources
available to the Center, a comprehensive service is
provided for researchers: the Center has established a
specialized database in several different fields.
Due to the need to link our intellectual resources to
their roots in our heritage, and to reveal the treasures
of the past and make them easily accessible to
researchers, the
King Faisal Center for Research and
Islamic Studies has been particularly active in the
analysis and bibliographical documentation of the
classical works of Islam. A concerted effort is being
made to index contemporary books and periodicals
electronically, according to subject. Through the
Center's specialized database of Arabic manuscripts held
by the various databases the Center is able to offer a
complete and comprehensive bibliographical service to
researchers and students.
The database resources at the
King Faisal Center For
Research and Islamic Studies are the fruit of more than
thirteen years of work. The Center continues to spare no
effort to develop these resources and to widen their
scope as far as possible. The database can be divided
into two main types:
Bibliographical
Databases:
This database covers King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz,
Islamic Media, Islamic Education, Women in Islam,
Manuscripts, Edited Classical Works, and University
Dissertations. There is a separate database on
dissertations covering all Masters and Ph.D.
dissertations presented for higher degrees in the
universities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Researchers can also find complete information on
university dissertations presented throughout the Arab
world.
The Manuscript
Section:
The Center's Manuscript Library holds some 25,000 titles
at the time of writing, in addition to some 40,000
microfilm copies held in the manuscript collections of
other major libraries including the British Library, the
Bibliotheque National in Paris, and the Library of
Congress, Washington DC. The Manuscript Section includes
a special department responsible for indexing Arabic
manuscript resources throughout the world, according to
country. This index is a major source of information on
manuscript resources and forms the backbone of the
Khizanet al-turath [Heritage Data bank, a compendium of
Islamic manuscripts worldwide.
The Children's
Library:
It was established to cater to the special needs of
children. Young people using the children's library at
the Center receive a solid grounding in Islamic culture
and the guiding principles of their faith, its cultural
heritage, and its civilization. Programs organized by
the Children's Library emphasize the importance of
learning and co-operation and aim to give children a
positive self-image. The Library includes a large
selection of children's books, audio-visual materials,
and a computer laboratory. Holdings exceed 18,700 books,
not counting children's periodicals. There is also a
hobby and craft area set aside for drawing, coloring,
calligraphy, and construction type games.
Museums and
Galleries:
Museum of Islamic Heritage:
This is a permanent museum of representative examples of
Islamic art from a variety of Muslim societies spanning
almost fourteen centuries. The museum's collection is
made up of more than two hundred pieces dating from the
second century Hijra 7th. c CE to the present. These
include household items, weaponry, items used in
manufacture of books, medical instruments and coins.
King Faisal
Gallery:
This gallery preserves the personal belongings of the
King such as books, awards, gifts and other items
pertaining to the reign of the King
Manuscripts
Gallery:
This is a permanent gallery dedicated to showing the
rare manuscripts in the library of the Center.
 
King Faisal Center for Research
and Islamic Studies
P.O. Box 51049, Riyadh-11543,
Saudi Arabia.
Tel: (9661) 465 2255
Fax: (9661) 465 9993
e-mail: sjameel@kff.com
www.kfcris.com |
