Cairo: Al-Sahafa.

Al-Sahafa, the largest online newspaper, has announced the "Digital Arab Divan" project, aimed at digitally publishing Arabic poetry. This pioneering initiative seeks to significantly increase the amount of poetic content available online.

Publisher Alamir Kamal Farag stated, "According to 2023 statistics, Arabic content on the internet does not exceed 3%. This figure is disproportionate to the Arab world's population of approximately 430,753,333, which constitutes 5% of the global population."

He emphasized, "The meager amount of Arabic content on the worldwide web is inconsistent with the rich and ancient Arab culture that has educated the world and whose poetry has inspired the West, influencing the development of rhyme schemes. If Arabic content is so scarce online, then poetic content is even less so."

Farag added, "The 'Digital Arab Divan' project aims to fill this significant gap and contribute to increasing Arabic content in general and poetic content in particular by publishing the largest number of poems online and delivering Arabic poetry to millions of readers worldwide, leveraging the vast potential of digital publishing."

He explained, "The project will treat the poem as a poetic unit, regardless of whether it has been published in diwans or books. The first phase aims to publish one million poems, emphasizing that this long-overdue initiative of digital documentation is, if successful, as important as physical documentation."

Farag indicated that the "Digital Arab Divan" will prioritize publishing newer poems first, followed by older ones, as contemporary Arabic poetry is a priority for documentation. The project will focus on classical Arabic poetry, regardless of form—whether it is traditional, free verse, or prose poetry—with quality being the sole criterion for publication.

Farag called on Arab poets to actively contribute to this project, promote it, and benefit from it by submitting their poems in Word format, along with a brief biography and a personal photo. There is no limit to the number of poems a poet can submit. Poems should be sent to: digitalarabdiwan@gmail.com.

He explained that the "Digital Arab Divan" is a voluntary individual initiative launched by Al-Sahafa newspaper, with no profit-making objectives. As such, it is not supported by any organization and welcomes volunteers from all countries who believe in the mission of poetry, the importance of publishing it, and maximizing its benefits to contribute to the project's work in areas such as review, editing, publishing, marketing, and social media.