Professor Ramzi Baalbaki, the Margaret Weyerhaeuser Jewett Chair of Arabic at the American University of Beirut, has received the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language Prize. This prestigious international award honors individuals and institutions for their “outstanding contributions to the Arabic language.”
The official announcement of the prize recognizes Baalbaki for his lifetime of groundbreaking contributions to the service of the Arabic language and for his enrichment of the fields of Arabic linguistics, lexicography, and philological heritage. It further highlights the impact of his innovative methods on Arabic linguistic research, both in the Arab world and internationally. Among his prolific scholarly achievements are 13 single-authored books; 12 edited volumes and critical editions of classical Arabic texts; and more than 80 articles in Arabic and English published in leading academic journals.
The announcement also underscores Professor Ramzi Baalbaki’s leadership in the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, where he has served as chair of the Academic Council since its inception in 2013, as well as his completion of al-Mawrid al-Akbar, the most comprehensive English–Arabic dictionary to date, a work initiated by his late father, Mounir Baalbaki.
Published in 2025, Baalbaki’s most recent book, Muqawwimat al-Nazariyya al-Lughawiyya al-‘Arabiyya (Constituents of the Arabic Linguistic Theory), is the first title to appear in AUB’s newly established Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Series: Arabic and Islamic Texts and Studies. This publication marks a new milestone in advancing Arabic linguistic thought from within the Arab scholarly tradition.
Earlier this year, Baalbaki also received the Qatar State Achievement Prize in recognition of his “significant intellectual contributions enriching Arabic culture with originality and authenticity.” His numerous honors also include the King Faisal International Prize (2010) and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Prize (2021), reflecting a sustained record of regional and international distinction.
A two-time graduate of AUB (BA ’73 with high distinction, MA ’75), Baalbaki holds a PhD from the University of London and has been a member of the AUB faculty since 1978.
In a message to the AUB community, Dr. Fadlo Khuri, AUB president, said that Professor Ramzi Baalbaki’s research on Arabic grammar, comparative Semitics, and the history of the Arabic script “has inspired generations of scholars and students and increased knowledge of the Arabic language internationally.”
Khuri congratulated Professor Baalbaki “for the ongoing recognition of his accomplishments in the field of Arabic language and lexicography and for helping maintain the long tradition of academic excellence for which the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages [at AUB] is known.”
Founded in 1866, the American University of Beirut bases its educational philosophy, standards, and practices on the American liberal arts model of higher education. A teaching-centered research university, AUB has more than 790 full-time faculty members and a student body of over 9000 students. AUB currently offers more than 140 programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s, MD, and PhD degrees. It provides medical education and training to students from throughout the region at its Medical Center that includes a full-service 365-bed hospital.
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