Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), received on Friday, 12 June 2026, at the Organization’s headquarters in Rabat, Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Zayed, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in the presence of Ambassador Ahmed Nihad Abdel Latif, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Kingdom of Morocco. The two sides discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in publishing, the preservation of Islamic and human heritage, the conservation and restoration of manuscripts, and the development of cultural and knowledge-based projects.

At the outset of the meeting, Dr. AlMalik reviewed ICESCO’s most prominent programs and initiatives in education, science, and culture, highlighting the Organization’s efforts to protect heritage, promote the cultural economy, and support knowledge production. He also touched on the Sultan Qaboos Library project, recently inaugurated at ICESCO headquarters, affirming that libraries are no longer merely spaces for storing books, but have become vital institutions for knowledge production and cultural dissemination.

Dr. AlMalik stressed the importance of benefiting from the extensive expertise accumulated by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in documentation, digital preservation, and the management of heritage collections, emphasizing the need to build strategic partnerships between the two institutions to strengthen the presence of Islamic and human heritage and make it accessible to future generations and researchers worldwide.

For his part, Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Zayed presented an overview of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s main projects, including the initiative to summarize 1,000 books and encyclopedias to bring knowledge closer to young people and facilitate access to its content. He also reviewed the awards and programs launched by the library in recent years to promote a culture of reading and scientific research, noting that the library holds more than one million books, over 600 original historical manuscripts, and around 21,000 digitized manuscripts, and receives approximately three thousand visitors daily.

The meeting also discussed several practical proposals for cooperation, including launching a joint project to revive Islamic and human heritage through the restoration of manuscripts and rare books, as well as translating historical, intellectual, and Islamic works into several languages. It was also proposed to establish a joint reading award aimed at encouraging young people to read and strengthening a culture of knowledge.

The meeting was attended on the ICESCO side by Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa, Deputy Director-General; Mr. Osama Heikal, Head of the Media and Communication Sector; Dr. Ahmed Albanyan, Director of the Translation and Publishing Center; Dr. Sally Mabrouk, Head of the Director-General’s Office and Supervisor of the Strategy and Institutional Excellence Sector; and Ambassador Khalid Fathalrahman, Director of the Center for Civilizational Dialogue.