Al Qawafi Award Winners Honoured By Sharjah Ruler At 2025 Arabic Poetry Festival
The 22nd Sharjah Arabic Poetry Festival gathered poets, writers, and media figures from across the Arab world for a ceremony where His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, honoured the winners of the Al Qawafi Award 2025 at Dr Sultan Al Qasimi Centre.
The award ceremony formed part of the festival’s programme, which officially opened on Monday evening, and saw the Ruler of Sharjah receive participants and guests, listen to their work, and personally present awards to the winning poets, who each recited their poem to the audience during the event.
The Al Qawafi Award 2025 poems covered several themes, including elegy, national pride, and contemplation of nature and the self, while a number of participating poets focused on Sharjah itself, portraying the emirate as a leading centre of Arab culture and literature within the wider regional literary landscape.
Poets explained that this recognition through the Al Qawafi Award 2025 represented important encouragement, as the honoured poets voiced deep gratitude to the Ruler of Sharjah for sustained backing of poets, writers, and creatives in different literary and artistic fields, and for selecting and publishing their work within the award’s distinguished collection.
The Al Qawafi Award 2025 ceremony featured readings by Hussein Al Abdullah from Syria with "If It Rained Gold", Ahmed Shalaby from Egypt with "Standing in the Middle of a Dream", Rashed Issa from Jordan with "A Whisper from the Island of Light", and Noufal Al Saeedi from Morocco with "The City’s Child".
Other poets presented their winning works in the Al Qawafi Award 2025 segment, including Omar Al Raji with "The Stranger of Andalusia", Zakaria Mustafa with "A Rose for the Guardian of Meaning", Hamza Al Youssef with "Echo", Abdullah Abdel Sabour with "To the Soul of My Father", and Mohammed Saeed Al Atiq with "Virtues".
| Poet | Country | Poem Title |
|---|---|---|
| Hussein Al Abdullah | Syria | If It Rained Gold |
| Ahmed Shalaby | Egypt | Standing in the Middle of a Dream |
| Rashed Issa | Jordan | A Whisper from the Island of Light |
| Noufal Al Saeedi | Morocco | The City’s Child |
| Omar Al Raji | — | The Stranger of Andalusia |
| Zakaria Mustafa | — | A Rose for the Guardian of Meaning |
| Hamza Al Youssef | — | Echo |
| Abdullah Abdel Sabour | — | To the Soul of My Father |
| Mohammed Saeed Al Atiq | — | Virtues |
| Asma Al Hammadi | UAE | Morning Is Its Creed |
| Khaled Al Hassan | Iraq | A Prayer in Al Noor Mosque |
| Shams Al Din Boukloua | Algeria | The Path of the Sun |
Participants from the UAE and several Arab countries also contributed to the Al Qawafi Award 2025 event, including poet Asma Al Hammadi from the UAE with "Morning Is Its Creed", and Khaled Al Hassan from Iraq with "A Prayer in Al Noor Mosque", before the programme ended with Algerian poet Shams Al Din Boukloua presenting "The Path of the Sun".
At the close of the gathering, His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi greeted the poets and guests individually and received special gifts, including poetry collections and books, reinforcing the cultural character of the Al Qawafi Award 2025 within the broader Sharjah Arabic Poetry Festival activities.
With inputs from WAM
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