His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, was bestowed with the Legion of Honor, with the rank of Supreme Commander, the highest national honor at the level of the French Republic, bestowed on His Highness by His Excellency Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, and handed to him by His Excellency Nicholas Nemchenau, Ambassador of the Republic of France to the UAE, this evening, Tuesday, in the Badi Palace.

Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah; Sheikh Abdullah bin Salem bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah; and Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, were also present at the event. His Highness was awarded the medal in honor of his scientific, cultural, and literary accomplishments, as well as his support for bilateral ties between the UAE and the French Republic in a variety of disciplines.

In a speech given on this occasion, His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah expressed gratitude to the President of France for bestowing upon him the nation's highest honor, the Legion of Honor with the rank of Supreme Commander. He said, "We thank His Excellency Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, who decided to award us, by a special decree, the "Order of the Legion of Honor with the Rank of Supreme Commander. I would also want to express my gratitude to His Excellency Nicholas Nemchenau, French Ambassador to the UAE, for entrusting us with this responsibility.

His Highness mentioned the French honor bestowed upon him earlier in his speech, saying, "On the twenty-second of July 2003, the French Republic honored me with the award of the "Order of the French Republic for Arts and Letters, with the rank of Knight Commander," in the Grand Ceremonies Hall at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in Paris in the middle of official ceremony. In a speech, I thanked the French government for the honour, which I saw as a mandate to continue cultural giving, and I discussed the Republic of France's pioneering role in intellectual enlightenment and civilised communication, as well as its contributions to the cultural field, translation, and literature, and the spread of the concepts of freedom and justice.

His Highness added, "Since that assignment, I began to collect all that was written about the cultural history of the French Republic, using the titles of books in the Egyptian Scientific Institute in Cairo, and I had an old friendship with the Academy, which was established on the twenty-second of August 1798, when the President of the institute at the time was" Gaspard Monge and his deputy, Napoleon Bonaparte, commander of the French forces in Egypt, I collected nearly 8,000 titles, and I decided to establish a scientific institute for those books, similar to the French Institute as well as the Egyptian Institute, and I decided that the Sharjah Institute would be the third of the trio.

"On the evening of December 16, 2011, I was watching TV in the city of Paris, and the Egyptian Institute was burning while people were rushing to transfer the burnt books, and sadness had spread to all Egyptians; it was sinful hands extended to that compound," His Highness said, referring to the events at the Egyptian Institute.

"The Egyptian Institute was rebuilt," His Highness said, "and I presented all the books I had acquired to it, which amounted to approximately 8,000 titles." I also made a deposit for the Egyptian Institute in order to protect it from going bankrupt. I recollected everything I gave to the Egyptian Academy again, because these French books are rare, but I will finish acquiring them soon, and I began building the Sharjah Institute as well as writing the cultural history of France, which consists of four chapters, the first of which is "The Century of Lights," in that eighteenth century, The foundations of Western society and civilization are the result of that era, which was made by the ideas of intellectuals who were called philosophers in that era, such as Denis Diderot, the founder of the "Encyclopédie," jointly with D’Alembert, and among the liberal philosophers of that century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire."

His Highness continued discussing his book, saying, "Chapter Two: The Century of Lights Still Shines" is about the nineteenth century, when the case of "Dreyfus" and "Emile Zola" took place, and intellectuals emerged as a collective force when they defended "Dreyfus" and freed him from prison.

Chapter three takes place in the twentieth century and is titled "The Beautiful Era." Anyone interested in discovering more about this period could visit Sharjah, which is home to several educational institutions, cultural landmarks, and recreational hotspots.

In the fourth chapter, titled "Controversial Issues on Globalisation and Cultural Exception," I detailed everything that had happened in relation to globalisation, along with the way they used the concept of a clash of civilizations to justify its justification. France, at the helm of the European Union, began vigorously defending the idea of cultural exception; it prevailed; I will publish this book to introduce all Arabs to French culture.

At the end of his speech, His Highness affirmed that Sharjah welcomes all forms of cooperation with friends and partners in this cultural orientation with which the French Republic is linked, hoping that His Highness will continue enhancing the ties between the two countries.