On the morning of May 24, 2023, at the invitation of Professor Fu Zhiming, Deputy Dean of School of Foreign Languages of Peking University (“PKU”) and Director of the Arab Studies Center of King Abdulaziz Public Library Branch in Peking University (“Library Branch”), Professor Hu Long, a renowned scholar who specialized in Arab culture, gave a lecture on Ancient Arabic Manuscripts in China at the Library Branch. Sha Zongping, an associate professor from the Department of Philosophy of PKU, Lian Chaoqun, an associate professor from the Arabic Language Department of School of Foreign Languages, and Dr. Gao Shan, an Egyptian assistant professor, Wang Qifei, a young Chinese Arabic calligrapher, Abid and Zhang Meiping, Deputy Directors of the Library Branch, and more than ten undergraduate and graduate students from the Arabic Language Department of PKU, as well as dozens of librarians of the Library Branch, were present at the meeting and listened to the report.

Taking “Strengthening Civilization Exchange, Enhancing Understanding and Trust” as the starting point and with the aid of a large number of example images of ancient Arabic manuscripts, the lecture specifically displayed the overall situation of the ancient Arabic manuscripts in China from five aspects—“A Profile of Ancient Arabic Manuscripts”, “The Introduction of Ancient Arabic Manuscripts into China”, “Classification and Content of Chinese Ancient Arabic Manuscripts”, “Version, Content, Binding and Writing Characteristics of Ancient Arabic Manuscripts”, and “A Review and Outlook of the Research on Ancient Arabic Manuscripts in China”.

After the lecture, Professor Hu Long gave answers to the questions raised by the audience regarding “the emergence of ‘Xiaojing’ (an informal Arabic script)”, “the writing order of annotations in handwritten manuscripts”, the reserved space for handwritten manuscripts”, “the digitalization and collection of manuscripts” and etc.

The animated and lively lecture left everyone panting for more. It helped the audience gain a deeper understanding of the Arabic manuscripts in China that have witnessed the history of cultural communication between China and Arab countries, and in the meanwhile, provided new ideas for the development of featured resources and the services for teaching and research of the Library Branch. In such a way, the lecture wrapped up as a great success.