Following the shortlist announcement in March, the winners have now been announced for the 18th Edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA) is organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre the book awards aims to showcase the breadth of Arab culture around the world.

One of the world's leading prizes for Arab literature and culture the SZBA has been highlighting writers, scholars, translators, cultural leaders, institutions and organisations since the award was first created in 2006. The awards also uses the SZBA Translation grant to support the publication of Arabic literature around the world. This grant is used to award international publishers with translation funds.

This year's shortlist saw a remarkable list of internationally published writers. The 18th edition of the award received a record-breaking 4240 submissions from 74 different countries. This year's winners come from five different countries including the UAE, Tunisia, Germany, Egypt and China. There is a notable focus on the rich history of the Arab World amongst the winner's list which features a variety of genres from historical study to philosophy and fiction.

Winners have been announced across seven different award categories including the newly launched Editing or Arabic Manuscripts category. The winners will be celebrated at the official Award Ceremony which will take place on the 30th April, during the Aby Dhabi International Book Fair. Each of the winners will receive prize money of 750,000 UAE dirhams (£160,621/$204,198). The prize both celebrates the winners' achievements and helps to support their future literary and academic work.

Without further ado, the winners of the 18th edition of the SZBA are:

Literature

Al Halwani...Thulathiyat al-Fatimiyeen (Al Halwani: The Fatimid Trilogy) by Reem Bassiouney (Egypt), published by Nahdet Misr Publishing, Printing and Distribution in 2022

Publishing and Technology

Bayt Elhekma for Creative Industries, China

Contribution to the Development of Nations

Al-Asmaa’ al-Jughrafiya – Thakirat Ajyal (Geographical Names – Legacy of Generations) by Dr Khalifa Alromaithi (UAE), published by Austin Macauley Publishers in 2022

Arab Culture in Other Languages

The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam by Frank Griffel (Germany), published in English by Oxford University Press in 2021

Translation

Al-Ilm al-Jadeed (La Scienza Nuova – The New Science) authored by Giambattista Vico, translated from Italian to Arabic by Dr Ahmed Somai (Tunisia), published by Adab Publishing and Distribution in 2022

Young Author

Al Mashhad al-Moriski: Sardiyat al-Tard fi al-Fikr al-Espani (The Morisco Landscape Narratives of Expulsion in Modern Spanish Thought) by Dr Houssem Eddine Chachia (Tunisia), published by the Centre for Research and Knowledge Intercommunication in 2023 

Editing of Arabic Manuscripts

Safinat al-Mulk wa-Nafisat al-Fulk (Shehab al-Din) al-Muwashah wa-Musiqa al-Maqam al- Natiqa bil-Arabiya bayn al-Tantheer wal-Maras (The Ship of Possession and the Precious Ship (Shehab al-Din) - Muwashah and Arabic-speaking Maqam Music between Theory and Practice) by Dr Mustafa Said (Egypt), published by ElAin Publishing in 2023

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