Arab Book Award Jury Receives 1,043 Nominations From 41 Countries For 20252026 Cycle

Doha: The judging committee of the Arab Book Award announced that it had received 1,043 nominations from 41 Arab and foreign countries across the various prize categories, marking the end of the submission period for the third cycle (2025–2026).

Dr. Hanan Al-Fayyad, Media Advisor for the Arab Book Award, stated that the jury received 960 nominations in the“Single Book” category and 83 in the“Achievement” category.

She affirmed that the broad participation reflects the growing interest in the prize and its increasing prestige in academic and cultural circles, both regionally and internationally.

The participation from 41 countries highlights the prize's success in reaching creative researchers and authors across the globe.

Al-Fayyad noted that the nominated works were distributed as follows: 32% in social and philosophical studies, 27% in linguistic studies, 16% each in historical and Islamic studies, and 9% in dictionaries, encyclopedias, and text editing.

Dr. Al-Fayyad added that the prize's judging committees, composed of experts from across the Arab world, are working with integrity and transparency to select the best works.

The nominated entries will go through a rigorous and multi-stage evaluation process to ensure merit and fairness in selecting winners.

This process is expected to conclude by December.

The“Achievement” category is dedicated to honoring individuals with distinguished contributions in any of the prize's fields of knowledge, as well as institutions and publishing houses.

Final selections and the announcement of winners will take place at a special ceremony in early 2026.

She emphasized that the importance of the prize, which has a total value of one million dollars, goes beyond the monetary aspect.

It embodies a civilizational mission to restore the book's status as a tool for critical thinking, creativity, and transformation.

The prize aims to support Arabic-language authorship and scientific research and to enhance the status of the Arab book in the field of high-quality knowledge production.

The prizes are awarded in two main categories; Single Book” category which includes books written in Arabic within the defined fields of knowledge.

Eligible books must be published in print, have an international deposit number, and have been published within the last four years.

Each must be at least 30,000 words in length and adhere to academic standards in terms of methodology and citation.

The work should offer a qualitative contribution to Arab culture, and the author must be alive at the time of nomination.

Nominations in this category must come directly from the author; nominations by third parties are not accepted.

Only one work may be submitted, and applicants cannot compete in both categories.

Co-authored books are allowed if they are not the outcome of symposia or conferences, and all contributors must approve the submission.

The second category is“Achievement” category which honors individuals or institutions that have produced long-term knowledge projects.

Their contributions must be original, novel, and make a tangible impact on human knowledge.

Candidates must respect intellectual property rights and submit supporting documentation through the prize's official website.

This year's cycle focuses on five specialized fields of knowledge - Literary and critical studies of Arab heritage up to the end of the 10th century AH, Social and philosophical studies, with this cycle focusing on intellectual and economic studies, Historical studies, with this cycle covering Arab and Islamic history from the late 6th to the end of the 12th century AH, Islamic and Sharia studies, focusing this cycle on the Prophetic biography and Hadith studies (the previous cycle was dedicated to the principles of jurisprudence), and Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and text editing, with this cycle focusing on editing linguistic texts.

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