Al-Afif Cultural Foundation honors Hussein Al-Amri [Archives:2006/944/Culture]
Al-Afif Cultural Foundation held a celebration Tuesday May 2, 2006, to honor Prof. Hussein Abdullah Al-Amri, member of the Foundation's Board of Trustees.
Al-Amri is a preeminent Yemeni is historian, thinker, politician and researcher who honestly and objectively unveiled historical facts. His scientific efforts covered writing, editing and translating.
At the end of the ceremony, the honored scholar received a memorial, certificate of recognition and a version of the volumes of the Yemeni encyclopedia presented to him by Ahmed Jabir Afif, President of Al-Afif Cultural Foundation.
A number of speeches were delivered on the occasion. One of them was by Prof. Yosuf Mohammed Abdullah who reminisced his first meeting with Prof. Hussein Al-Amri. “That was in the summer of 1980 at Cambridge University,” he said. “The meeting opened for me a new world. I knew much about Yemeni antiquities, ancient history and cultural heritage. Yet, I had known little about the history and heritage of Sana'a. I was concentrating on the studies of Yemen and Arabia in Pre-Islamic eras. However, when I met. But it was Hussein Al-Amri who inculcated in me the studies of Yemen under Islam. With his profuse knowledge and smooth talk, he attracted me to the Islamic history of Sana'a.”
Despite his young age at the time, Al-Amri had the honor to organize the 1974 Islamic Festival in London which resulted in the memorial book on Sana'a which was supervised by Robert Sergeant, longtime professor of Yemeni and Arabian studies in Cambridge University.
Yosuf also mentioned the common works that joined him and Al-Amri. “We were together in the clique selected by great educator Ahmed Jabir Afif and were resolved to establish Al-Afif Cultural Foundation and author the Yemeni Encyclopedia. We were together when the Islamic Capitals and Cities Organization assigned us to author an architectural historical book on Sana'a.”
Both of them also took part in the publication of Sana'a: Civilization and History, published recently by Sana'a University. They also lectured at tens of international conferences and symposia on Yemen, and its civilizations and history.
As described by his friend Prof. Yosuf, Prof. Al-Amri is trimmed, clear-minded, well-mannered, with delicate taste. “He likes the good types of cuisine, adorns the majestic forms of beauty, has a sense of humor, writes magnificently, and is eloquent and tactful. He likes people and people like him.”
Prof. Al-Amri is a real politician. He was the son of a Prime Minister and he himself was a foreign minister when he was well below the thirties of age. He served as an ambassador to the UK.
In his word, Dr. Hamid Al-Awadhi, Yemen's representative at the UNESCO, said that Prof. Hussein Al-Amri succeeded in combining the study of history, literature, jurisprudence, Quraan interpretation, politics, diplomacy and culture in a gorgeous encyclopedic mould.
“He removed the barriers among the knowledge components and formed one entity crystallized in his multiplicity of edited books and miscellaneous studies. He analyzed that knowledge entity to constitute a new understanding of the main and auxiliary parts.”
Ahmed Jabir Afif, President of Al-Afif Cultural Foundation, delivered a speech in which he said that he has known Hussein Al-Amri for about 50 years. “My happiness is indescribable,” he said, “as we introduce today a scholar and a builder cannot describe the journey of a scholar and a historian who could pave his way with difficulty and could secure high degrees from respectable institutions. He is a lofty head in Yemen and in the Arab world. He has exerted much efforts and spent the bloom of his life in seeking knowledge.”
Prof. Hussein Al-Amri has got a long record of achievements. He edited poetry collection Aslak Al-Jawahir (Strings of Jewels) of Imam Al-Shawkani. He also has written a number of researches and studies including Yemen's Modern and Contemporary History, Islamic Civilization in Yemen, Ship of Literature and History, Yemeni Cotemporary Historians, Yemeni Issues in History, Culture and Politics.
Dr. Hussein Al-Amri was born in Sana'a on April 28, 1944. He finished his primary education in Yemen and the secondary in Egypt . He graduated from the Faculty of Arts (History Department) of the University of Damascus. He did his M.A. at Cambridge University (Britain) and his PhD at Drum University (Britain). He joined the ministry of foreign affairs in 1964 and in 1975 was appointed as deputy minister of foreign affairs. Later, he occupied ministerial positions such as minister of foreign affairs, minister of education and minister of agriculture.
Presently he is a lecturer at Sana'a University's Faculty of Arts (History Department) and a member of the Shura Council.
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