On the morning of 4 April 2018, the opening ceremony of the 84th Annual Convention of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo was held in the headquarters of the Academy. Located on the banks of the River Nile, in Cairo's prestigious Zamalek Area, the building was receiving researchers, university professors and students, lovers of Arabic and diplomats from the Arabic-speaking world and beyond, together with the members of the Academy – ‘the eternals’ (al-khālidūn) as they are always called, dressed in black gowns with ivory and maroon hoods to mark their special status at this ceremonial occasion.

Ḥasan al-Shāfiʿī, the octogenarian president of the Academy among whose predecessors are some big names of the Egyptian intelligentsia in the twentieth century – ʾAḥmad Luṭfī al-Sayyid (d. 1963), Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (d. 1973), ʾIbrāhīm Madkūr (d. 1996) and Shawqī Ḍayf (d. 2005), was addressing the assembly. He reminded the audience that the Arabic language is ‘the foundation of our physical and cultural existence, the basis of our national identity and the anchor of our desired renaissance’ (al-Shāfiʿī 2018: 6). This language, he claimed, is now facing both internal and external challenges, especially those calls for ‘unilateral globalisation’. He announced that the theme of the 2018 convention was therefore ‘Protecting the Arabic Language: Challenges, Means and Objectives’, and invited the assembly to ponder and contribute. In a following speech, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Madkūr, Secretory of the Academy, detailed the challenges as coming from