Luso-Arab Institute for Cooperation names ‘Zayed Award’ Member

Abu Dhabi, 22 December, 2015 - Marking its first collaboration with the Portuguese cultural community, The Sheikh Zayed Book Award held a seminar, jointly with the UAE embassy in Lisbon, to promote the Award’s ‘Arabic Culture in Portuguese’ for the tenth Cycle 2015/2016. The category is devised this cycle to honor all written works in English, French and Portuguese languages about the Arabic civilization and culture. From the UAE side, present at the seminar were Sheikha Najla Al Qasimi, the UAE Ambassador to Portugal, Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, Secretary General of the Award, in addition to Mr. Sa’eed Hamdan, Award’s General Manager. In her opening speech, Sheikha Najla Al Qasimi praised the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s role in promoting the Arabic Culture throughout the world, and its celebration of the Portuguese creativity. Speaking on behalf of the Award, Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, commented: “In our pursuit of acknowledging creativity, we are here to celebrate the Portuguese valuable volume of intellectual and literary works”. From his side, Prof. Ant?nio Dias Farinha, from Lisbon University, highlighted the common history the Arabic and Islamic world shared with Portugal, noting the value of cooperating with Sheikh Zayed book Award and its unique vision in bridging the gap between civilizations and bringing forward the cultural dialogue across the globe. Parallel to the seminar, Dr. Manuel Pechirra, President of Luso-Arab Institute for Cooperation, granted the Sheikh Zayed Book Award the Council’s plaque, and named the award’s team honorary members of the council. During the visit, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award envoy met with key figures from a number of academic and cultural entities in Portugal, including University of Lisbon, Algarve University, Center of Middle Eastern Studies at Nova de Lisboa University, and Department of Arabic Studies in Evora University. Since the establishment of the “Arabic Culture in Other Languages” category, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award has accepted works of exceptional orientalists in English, Russian, Italian, Chinese and German and named mythologist Marina Warner from, UK archeologist Mario Liverani from Italy and historian Sugita Hideaki from Japan winners of the category in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award's first installment was in 2007, intended to promote scholarship and creativity in Arab culture. It carries cash prizes totaling Dhs7 million - with Dh750,000 per winner (equivalent to USD 204,217,50) in all eight categories (including the Arab Culture in non- Arabic languages category). The winners also receive a certificate of merit and a Gold Medal.