Muhammad Al-Sharekh is a Kuwaiti businessman born in 1942. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sakhr Computer Software Company. He was the first to introduce Arabic to computers, and translated various programs, the most important of which is the Holy Qur’an, in addition to his achievements in the “Al-Sharekh Archive”, which includes Arabic magazines, The Arabic dictionary, and a book project in a newspaper. He died in 2024.
Foundation
Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Sharekh was born in 1942 in Kuwait and grew up there.
His son, Fahd Al-Sharekh, is a Kuwaiti businessman. He founded Tech Invest Investment Company, is the CEO of Sakhr Company, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kamco Investment, and a member of several boards of directors of different companies.
His daughter, Al-Anoud Al-Sharekh, holds a doctorate and runs the strategic consulting company Ebtekar, and serves as an associate fellow in the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa Program and the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. She is a board member of a number of academic and non-governmental organizations.
Scientific formation
He traveled to Cairo and obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Cairo University in 1965, then completed his master’s degree at Williams College in Massachusetts in the United States of America, specializing in economic development.
Practical experience
He began his professional career as Deputy Director General of the Kuwait Fund for Development in 1969 and remained in his position for 4 years. Then he became Deputy Executive Director of the International Bank for Business and Development in Washington from 1973 to 1975. He then chaired the Board of Directors of the Industrial Bank of Kuwait from 1975 to 1979.
He worked as Vice President of the Arab Economists Association, and founded Al-Sharekh International Electronics Company in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Al-Sharekh is one of the contributors to funding the Center for Arab Unity Studies and the Arab Organization for Translation, and is also one of the contributors to the establishment of the Arab World Institute in Paris.
Sakhr’s story
Al Sharikh’s investments in children’s game programs, or what was then known as “Atari”, began in 1982, then he moved on to issuing children’s programs on the computer under the name “Sakhr MSX”. The project was successful at the Arab level, and was an impetus for developing it under the product name “Sakhr MSX”. Sakhr BC.
Al-Sharekh inspired the name of his project from the Arabic proverb, “Knowledge at a young age is like engraving on a stone,” so he chose the word “sakhr” to represent and symbolize the project.
Al-Sharekh established “Sakhr” Computer Software Company in 1982, a Kuwaiti company affiliated with the International Electronics Company.
Then he sought the help of the Egyptian scientist Dr. Nabil Ali to lay the foundations of the Arabic language and its rules to enable it in computers. Through his company, he was able to introduce the Arabic language to computers, so “Sakhr” became the first Arabic computer.
The entry of Arabic onto computers was accompanied by a package of translated programs, the most important of which was the “Holy Qur’an” program, the nine hadith books in English for the computer, and the Islamic Information Archive, followed by Arabic optical character recognition programs, and then the “Tarjim” program. Thus, he would be the first to introduce the Arabic language to computers in history.
After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Al-Sharekh moved the headquarters of his company Sakhr from Jabriya in Kuwait to Cairo in 1990. The company was forced to restructure its activities and stop the hardware production program, to rely on the software arm of the organization. In cooperation with UNESCO, Al-Sharekh founded the “Book in a Newspaper” project in 1997. .
He also created the contemporary Arabic dictionary in 2019 and made it available online for free. It contains 125,000 meanings and syntaxes, and a database of synonyms and antonyms that reached 35,000 synonyms and antonyms. The site also includes 3 of the most famous traditional dictionaries: Al-Qamus Al-Muhit, Taj Al-Arous, and Lisan Al-Arab.
Sakhr Company obtained 3 patents from the United States Patent Office, namely optical character recognition (OCR), automatic translation from Arabic to English, and Arabic pronunciation.
Sakhr computer keyboard (social networking sites)
Al-Sharekh Archive
In 2016, Al-Sharekh began his major project, which he called “Al-Sharekh Archive,” a project to collect Arab literary and cultural magazines and upload them to the Internet, with the aim of preserving the Arab cultural heritage and making it available and accessible to researchers and students. The archive is distinguished by its fast performance and accurate access to information, which saves time and effort.
The archive includes copies of ancient and modern Arab magazines. The number of magazines in it has reached 272, of which 15,824 issues are available. The number of articles has reached 325,625 articles. The archive also contains about 52,000 Arab and foreign books.
It is one of the most important magazines included in the archive
Compositions
Al-Sharif has literary works, which are:
- The story “Qais and Laila” was the first story he wrote and published in 1968.
- A collection of 10 stories, published in 2006.
- A collection of short stories entitled “The Square”, published in 2012.
- A collection of short stories entitled “Secrets” published in 2017.
- A novel called “The Family” published in 2018.
Muhammad Al-Sharekh was the first to introduce the Arabic language to computers (social networking sites)
Awards
Al Sharekh received several awards from various Arab institutions, including:
- “Pioneers” Award from the Arab Thought Foundation.
- Best Man in Information Technology Award in 1997.
- Electronic Vision Award in 2002.
- The Electronic Inclusion Award, which was awarded to the “Ebsar” program for the blind.
- Best Products Award at the COMDEX Egypt Exhibition in 1998.
- Nasher Net Award in 1998.
- State Appreciation Award from Kuwait in 2018.
- King Faisal International Award for Service to Islam in 2021.
- In addition to a number of certificates of appreciation from a number of Kuwaiti and Saudi institutions.
Death
Muhammad Al-Sharekh died on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at the age of 82.
