The screen went dark after a documentary recounting Abu Khalil Al-Qabbani’s journey from Damascus to Chicago, leaving behind a question that continued to follow me: Has the relationship between the homeland and its creators changed, or does the question of recognition still travel across Syrian generations?
A few days earlier, the Syrian Cultural Salon hosted Syrian writer and novelist Maria Dadoush in an event titled “Among My Family and My People.” At first, the title seemed simple and warm, but it revealed a deeper meaning whenever I reflected on her career: more than ninety books, Arab and international awards, participation in conferences and festivals, and an experience that included training tens of thousands of people interested in creative writing. Despite this remarkable achievement, she chose to summarize the moment of meeting her Syrian audience in two expressions: “Among My Family and My People.”
Nearly two centuries separate Abu Khalil Al-Qabbani and Maria Dadoush, yet they are connected by the question of national recognition. It is a question that has remained present despite changing times, because the position of a creator within their homeland is shaped by the extent to which their work finds a place in cultural memory and becomes part of its institutions and development.
Recognition in the cultural field establishes a mutual relationship between the creator and the homeland. It gives the work an opportunity to transcend its creator and become part of national memory, an experience passed between generations and invested in by institutions as they build their cultural future.
Every cultural achievement carries knowledge accumulated through many years of experience and work. When this expertise finds its place in universities, cultural institutions, and training programmes, it becomes a shared intellectual resource that broadens the horizons of cultural practice and gives generations the opportunity to build upon what came before them. Here, the value of recognition becomes clear, because it preserves expertise and gives it the ability to continue and renew itself.
Throughout its history, Syria has known creators who left lasting marks on literature, the arts, and thought, establishing their names within the Arab and international cultural landscape. Yet the years of forced displacement widened the distance between many of these experts and their homeland. They continued to contribute and produce beyond its borders, while Syrian cultural life lost direct contact with some of its most experienced talents.
The value of recognition is connected to the future of culture just as much as it is connected to the creator. Every form of expertise that finds its way into national institutions adds to the country’s intellectual resources and gives new generations an opportunity to learn from those who preceded them. As this circle expands, the relationship between the creator and the homeland becomes an ongoing partnership: the creator contributes their expertise, while the homeland gains knowledge that is renewed with every experience and reflected in its cultural projects and initiatives.
Recognition therefore gains its true meaning when it becomes part of everyday cultural work and its impact appears in education, training, planning, initiatives, and cultural decision-making. Individual expertise then becomes a force that supports cultural life and opens the way for intellectual accumulation extending from one generation to the next.
Perhaps this is why the question raised by Abu Khalil Al-Qabbani remained present after the documentary ended and returned through the title chosen by Maria Dadoush: “Among My Family and My People.” Between these two experiences, extending across two centuries, recognition remains one of the cultural questions connected to the homeland’s ability to embrace and support the expertise of its creators and involve them in shaping its cultural future, so that their achievements remain alive in its memory and influential among its future generations.