A Seminar on Ahmed Pasha Kamal's Dictionary Restoration at the BA
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The BA Writing and Scripts Center organized a seminar entitled "One Hundred Years since the Death of Ahmed Pasha Kamal" on the occasion of the completion of the restoration and digitization process of The Dictionary of the Ancient Egyptian Language.
The seminar hosted the family of Ahmed Pasha Kamal including his grandson, Engineer Abdel Hamid Kamal Zakaria, who donated his grandfather’s Dictionary to the BA. Ahmed Pasha Kamal was the founder of the Egyptian National School of Egyptology, and is considered the sheikh of Egyptian archaeologists.
The seminar was inaugurated by Prof. Ahmed Zayed, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina; Prof. Osama Talaat, President of the General Authority of the National Library and Archives; Prof. Fayza Haikal, Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo; and Eng. Abdel Hamid Kamal Zakaria, grandson of the late Ahmed Pasha Kamal. It was presented by Dr. Ahmed Mansour, Director of the BA Writing and Scripts Center.
A number of specialized BA researchers took part in the seminar by delivering a series of lectures on the role of the BA in restoring and digitizing The Dictionary of the Ancient Egyptian Language and making it available to the public.
It is worth mentioning that the BA had participated in the international exhibition “Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt”, with a display of a facsimile of Ahmed Pasha Kamal's Dictionary. The exhibition was organized by the British Museum from 13 October 2022 to 19 February 2023, to mark the 200th anniversary of the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian language. Last September, a delegation from the British Museum visited the BA and toured the Book Restoration Lab to learn about the Dictionary’s restoration stages and its preparation for public display. This visit was part of the fruitful research cooperation between the BA and the British Museum.