Number of participants for “Al Safinat Poet” award dedicated to Nabati Poetry Collection reaches 146

The number of participants for “Al Safinat Poet” award dedicated to Nabati Poetry Collection reached 146, as announced by the Cultural Village Foundation, Katara, with the majority of them from the GCC states. The participation deadline ended on December 31, 2022. The winners’ names will be announced on the sidelines of Katara International Arabian Horses Festival (KIAHF) to be held from February 1 to 11. The winner will receive QR100,000 and the golden festival shield; the first runner up QR70,000 and the silver festival shield; while second runner up will get QR50,000 and the bronze festival shield. 

Katara Publishing House is set to print the winning poems in a book that will include critical studies for these poems. KIAHF has occupied a special place among similar festivals worldwide, and received major international interest with increasing requests for participation in competitions, said Chairman of the KIAHF Organising Committee and Katara General Manager Prof. Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti.

He added that the festival preferred to dedicate wide spaces for the events accompanying such an event to further encompass cultural aspects, and encourage equestrian horse breeding to include Arabic poetry in pursuit of connecting creativity in poems with the purebred Arabian horses to preserve the legacy of pre-Islamic poetry. 

Prof. Dr. Al Sulaiti added that the pre-Islamic poetry was creatively describes the Arabian horse and its beauty, and excelled in reminding its originality and speed, along with its superiority over its counterparts from the horses of other non-Arab regions.

The previous two versions of the festival were keen to connect the Arabian horse with plastic arts, where 21 plastic artists had participated and inspired the beauty of the Arabian horse and portrayed it in 106 artistic paints, Al Sulaiti pointed out.