JEDDAH: Dr. Saud Al-Sarhan is the secretary-general of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS).

The center was established in 1976 with a vision of continuing the noble mission of the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz (1906-1975) in spreading knowledge between Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world.

The center serves as a platform bringing together researchers and institutions to preserve, publish, and produce scholastic work.

This week, Al-Sarhan co-signed an agreement with Amazon, the international e-commerce company, to post books and studies of the KFCRIS on the Amazon Kindle e-reader website.

The agreement also includes providing KFCRIS’s publications on the Kindle application, available on mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone and Android, and other application stores.

Al-Sarhan said this step reflects KFCRIS’s eagerness to spread the cultural, literary, and scientific heritage of Islam and the Arab world through a notable electronic platform.

Having been appointed in 2016, Al-Sarhan is tasked with supervising the center’s research department.

He is also an honorary research fellow at the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at Exeter University, as well as a Distinguished International Affairs Fellow of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, in the US.

A Saudi writer with a focus on political and social changes within the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Sarhan received his doctorate from Exeter University in the UK.

He has multiple publications that touch upon the Iraq and Syria crises, as well as topics relating to the ideology of political Islamic groups, specifically their justifications for violence within Islamic ideology.