Doha: The second seminar of the fourth edition of the Ministry of Culture’s “Seminar Season,” held in partnership with Qatar University and the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, took place yesterday under the title “The Gulf and Its Historic Memory.”
The seminar featured the participation of Member of the Shura Council H E Khalid bin Ghanem Al Ali, Assistant Professor of Gulf Studies at Qatar University Dr. Amna Sadiq, and Dr. Alanoud Al Khalifa, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
Moderated by Director of Qatar Media Center Iman Al Kaabi, the seminar highlighted the dimensions of historical memory in the Arabian Gulf and its role in shaping cultural and social identity.
The “Seminar Season,” which continues until February 25, brings together a distinguished group of experts, intellectuals, thinkers, and academics from Qatar and beyond to exchange perspectives and develop enlightened approaches to cultural and intellectual debates, the challenges of contemporary civilizational relations, social changes, and other current cultural and intellectual issues.
In his intervention on shaping the historical memory, Khalid bin Ghanem Al Ali addressed three key themes: memory as a historical source, the formation of historical memory, and how to achieve a reliable historical memory.
He emphasized that historians should not accept historical writings from any source without critique, as they are susceptible to distortion and bias. Instead, they must rigorously compare and analyze texts to correct any inaccuracies and produce a narrative closer to historical truth.
He added that to build a reliable historical memory and move beyond traditional or uncritical narratives, Gulf historians must rewrite their history to assess the objectivity and accuracy of the prevailing narratives about their societies, which in turn shape historical memory.
Khalid bin Ghanem Al Ali called for giving greater value to local memory, recorded by those who lived it, such as Sheikh Jassim’s Diwan, which should be considered a primary source for Qatari historical memory. This approach, he noted, would serve two key objectives: either correcting the retrieved memory or refining the restored memory of local history.
He argued that achieving a trustworthy historical memory requires moving beyond narrative and descriptive writing (traditional history) to deeper understanding, applying theories and methodologies from the social sciences and humanities, such as Webers system theory, ideal models, and charisma.
