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AMMAN — The centrse of Instituto Cervantes in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo have recently held the first workshop of the Translation Programme Poetas Cervantes en Árabe (POCENAR) in the Wadi Rum Desert, with Catalan writer Joan Margarit as protagonist. 

The programme, due to take place during the 2024/2025 academic year in Jordan, is supported by the Embassy of Spain in Jordan, the Abertis Foundation and Beirut Digital District, according to a statement for The Jordan Times.

Margarit, who writes his poems in both Spanish and Catalan, Spain's co-official languages, won the 2019 Cervantes Prize in Literature, which is considered the highest recognition of Spanish literature. 

POCENAR aims to promote the work of the mentioned poets in the Arab world and to give visibility to the work of translators, especially the young ones, by contributing to their training, thus positively impacting in the quality of poetry translated into Arabic, the statement said.

The poet and architect Joan Margarit (Sanaüja, Spain, 1938-2021) was a professor of Architecture and participated in the construction of the Sagrada Familia. He wrote his poems in both Catalan and Spanish and received the Cervantes Prize in 2019. 

Four young translators from Jordan and Egypt, selected through a recent competition, participated in this first in-person workshop, led by poet and critic José Luis Morante and translator and writer Mohamad Bitari, professor of Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. 

POCENAR was born in Marrakech in 2016, and continued in Lebanon as of 2019. It has published bilingual poetic anthologies of Chilean Gonzalo Rojas, Spaniards José Hierro and María Zambrano, Uruguayan Ida Vitale, Mexican José Emilio Pacheco, and Colombian Álvaro Mutis.

Coinciding with the workshop, the Instituto Cervantes in Amman and the Embassy of Venezuela in Jordan inaugurated the photography exhibition "Transhumance" by Venezuelan photographer Héctor Varela. The exhibition was displayed at the Rum Art Centre in the village of Wadi Rum. The activity connected between the shepherding practices in the Spanish-speaking countries and the nomadic Bedouins tradition in this area, thus opening bridges between both cultures.

The next translation workshop will be held in May 2025 in Jordan, and will feature, in addition to the afore mentioned Mohamad Bitari, Lebanese Noura Sayed Rodríguez, Moroccan Hassan Boutaka, Egyptian Ali Abdel Latif, Jordanian Adnan Kadhim, and Syrian translator Jaafar Aluni as professors.

AMMAN – Syntheses of ancient Jerash and its urban spread are based largely on studies of monumental ruins, most of whose visible and imposing remains belong to the Roman and Byzantine eras of Jerash.  In 1930’s, Crowfoot's studies drew early attention to the selective reuse of older architectural blocks and entire building units in the construction of the first churches.

Breakdown of the civic infrastructure would happen during the turn of the epoch or during big natural disasters like the famous earthquake from 749 AD.

"Recent material evidence supports contemporary literary references suggesting that during the Crusades and after the Mamluk Jerash had been reduced to impoverished improvised occupancies," said Australian scholar Ina Kehrberg-Ostrasz, adding that in the 19th century, a Circassian and Chechen colony was settled under Ottoman rule and Jerash revived as a township. 

“The history of urban growth has changed relatively little seen in the main through the ruins of public secular and religious monuments which have earned Gerasa the modern attribute "Pompeii of the East",” Kehrberg-Ostrasz elaborated, noting that overshadowed by these acclaimed monumental ruins, it is easy to consider as insignificant, or worse to ignore the seemingly vacant areas between those standing ruins and main thoroughfares. 

"Yet, these buried lots aligning ancient streets and lanes were once an integral part of urban growth and their intended use, or deliberate non-use would have been part of town planning projects. One may posit in addition, that local populations would have made temporary use of unbuilt civic environs," the scholar said, adding that the aerial views demonstrate how repetitively selective the architectural evidence is which has served urban studies of Gerasa until recently.

“Archaeology in Gerasa is still mostly limited to a supporting role for restoration projects of Roman and Byzantine monumental ruins and their architectural studies. Most of the "inter-monumental" urban space thus remains terra incognita and will continue to be covered with excavated debris,” Kehrberg-Ostrasz said, adding that nearly two centuries of topographical, architectural and archaeological explorations, the first two systematic and extensive by Buckingham and his team of surveyors in 1816 and in 1893 by Schumacher have advanced surprisingly little our knowledge of the complexities of urban space as it was conceived and actually used by the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic population.

"Concentration on visible monumental remains and their restoration is also largely responsible for our flawed knowledge of pre-Roman Hellenistic and first century BC/AD Gerasa. Apart from some literary accounts, notably by the 1st century AD historian Flavius Josephus, and first century epigraphic references, until very recently (infra) there has been hardly any material evidence from the second century and little of the first centuries BC and AD," Kehrberg-Ostrasz elaborated.

In the last two decades of the 20th century research on the development of Early Roman Gerasa has relied heavily on findings at the lower terrace of the Zeus Sanctuary conducted by the French scholar Seigne and at the Artemis Sanctuary.

“Architectural blocks from Late Hellenistic buildings were discovered during excavation or anastyloses of Roman monuments, however most evidence for locations of buildings whose existence is known from recycled blocks stays hidden underground,” Kehrberg-Ostrasz underlined, adding that one such case is the Late Hellenistic Temple of Zeus, a good number of whose richly ornamented blocks were found by the excavators in the underground vaults of the first century naos situated on the lower terrace of the Zeus Sanctuary.

"Permitting the argument that the naos was probably located within the earlier precinct of the Zeus Sanctuary, a partial reconstruction on the site was hindered by the fact that the actual location of the monument remains unknown. The blocks are now exhibited together with a hypothetical model in the crypto portico of the lower terrace," Kehrberg-Ostrasz underscored.

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania visited Sahab on Wednesday, where she hosted a luncheon for group of over 100 women active in the fields of education, culture, media, and civil society.

Sahab Governor Ali Mawas and Mayor Abbas Maharma welcomed Her Majesty to the area and briefed her on a number of projects serving the community’s families, according to a statement from the Office of Her Majesty. 

Joining the women of Sahab, Her Majesty thanked them for their gracious welcome, and expressed her warm wishes for Jordan and its people in the year ahead.

Reflecting on the past year, Queen Rania noted that it has been a difficult period for the region, marked by oppression and unimaginable suffering in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and elsewhere, the statement said. 

“We used to believe that all people in this world had an equal claim to humanity and human rights; but sadly, we are seeing otherwise,” she said. 

“We in Jordan will stay true to the core values with which we were raised: kindness, generosity, compassion, care, and community. These are the values I never fail to see in the Jordanian people,” she added.

Her Majesty also expressed her gratitude for the nation’s many blessings, adding that the birth of her first granddaughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Iman bint Al Hussein, is what she is most thankful for this year. 

“Time flies when I’m with her,” she said.

AMMAN — The return of Jordanian detainee after spending almost four decades in the notorious Saydnaya prison in Syria, has sparked intense discussions across social media outlets and the Jordanian public.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sufian Qudah announced on Tuesday the arrival of Jordanian citizen Osama Bashir Bataineh, who had been detained in the former Syrian regime’s prisons, through the Jaber crossing.  

In a statement to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Qudahh said, "After social media platforms were abuzz with the story of detainee Bataineh, we contacted his father yesterday and gathered all necessary information. Thankfully, Bataineh has arrived at the Jaber border and was handed over to his father by the Public Security Directorate personnel."  

Regarding his health condition, Qudah noted that Bataineh was found unconscious and suffering from memory loss. He added that Bataineh, born in 1968, disappeared in 1986 at the age of 18 and remained imprisoned for 38 years.

According to local news outlets, upon his arrival, the detainee exhibited signs of memory loss after spending numerous years in Syrian detention. However, when inquired about his place of origin, he confirmed that he was from Irbid. 

The news of his return has sparked a wave of reactions over social media platforms, with many expressing shock and disbelief over the prolonged detention period, having a deep sense of solidarity and support.

On Facebook, Sahem Saaydah Abadi wrote: “A long journey of pain and patience comes to an end today… Can time erase the years of injustice? And can a single moment restore the memories shattered by prison bars?” 

Similarly, Sanaa Tawfiq wrote on X: “Welcome back after decades of silence and darkness. Your resilience is a testament to the human spirit. May this day mark a new chapter of healing and remembrance.”

Others voiced their anger at the injustice and the heavy toll of long years of imprisonment. On Instagram, people shared his story on their feed. Samah Kharabshe, said: “Who will be held accountable for 38 years of stolen life? This is beyond heartbreaking.”