MAKKAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khalid Al-Faisal launched the “first online Arabic poetry encyclopedia” at the principality’s head office in Makkah on Tuesday. The Umm Al-Qura University carried out the project. The Makkah governor was briefed about the project, which involved 67 researchers of the Arabic Language Research Center. It contains information about 3,400 poets dating back to the pre-Islamic era. The encyclopedia aims to create a reference for literary Arabic language and facilitate scientific research with a powerful search engine designed by the university’s Engineering Research Center. It will help researchers interested in acoustic, lexical, linguistic and artistic studies in Arabic poetry. Umm Al-Qura University President Abdullah Bafail and other university officials attended the ceremony.