Master’s Degree Awarded to Mr. Saif Ahmed Al-Sharjabi in Arabic Language and Literature

Mr. Saif Ahmed Ghilan Al-Sharjabi was awarded a Master’s Degree in Arabic Language and Literature with an average of (Excellent) and a grade of (95%) for his thesis titled: The Discourse of Ancient Arabic Criticism: An Archaeological Study, which was submitted to the Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities– Sana’a University. The MA defense was held on Thursday, October 16, 2025.

The MA Viva-voce Committee, which was formed based on a resolution issued by the Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Council, consisted of the following:

The research aimed to:

• Define the distinctiveness of Arab thought and what differentiates it from other intellectual traditions across cultures.
• Explore this distinctiveness within the framework of Michel Foucault’s archaeological theory of knowledge, focusing on identifying the episteme—the underlying system of knowledge—within a specific historical period of Arab culture.

The research yielded several findings summarized as follows:

• The general Arab episteme was a form of critical knowledge comprising interactive elements, where literariness represented one pole and rhetoric the other.
• The Arab episteme exhibited remarkable stability over long periods compared to Western epistemes, possibly due to its broad and inclusive nature and the multiplicity of its internal components—indicating an urgent need to engage in intellectual dialogue beyond it.

In light of these findings, the researcher recommended:

• Exercising caution to avoid adopting the perspectives of the “Other” when analyzing Arab intellectual and cultural issues.
• Emphasizing instrumental analysis as an alternative to conceptual analysis in cross-cultural studies, as it provides context-specific analytical tools free from potential metaphysical biases.

The defense session was attended by a number of academics, researchers, colleagues and the researcher’s family members.‎