RIYADH, 28 January 2004 — Dr. Yacoub Abd Al-Wahab Al-Bahussain of Saudi Arabia and Dr. Ali Ahmad Ghulam Muhammad Nadvi of India were this year’s joint winners of the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies. Professor Hussain Muhammad Nassar of Egypt won the prize for Arabic language and literature. In the medicine and science categories, Professor Ulrich Sigwart of Switzerland was the winner for medicine and Professor Semir Zeki of the United Kingdom was the science winner.
The winners were announced here yesterday by Asir Governor and King Faisal Foundation Director General Prince Khaled Al-Faisal in the presence of members of the royal family, Cabinet ministers and diplomats. In addition there was a large group of distinguished guests attending the ceremony at the Al-Khozama Center.
Each winner receives a cash prize of SR750,000 ($200,000), a certificate hand-written in Diwani calligraphy explaining his achievements and a commemorative 22-carat gold medallion measuring 70.9 mm in diameter and weighing 200 grams.
The citation for Dr. Yacoub Al-Bahussain, associate professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, praised his exhaustive and original studies into the fundamental rules of Islamic jurisprudence.
Dr. Ali Ahmad Nadvi, head of Shariah advisers at Al-Rajhi Financial Company, was cited for his widely recognized book (in Arabic) on Islamic jurisprudence in financial matters. The citation explained that Dr. Ali Ahmad Nadvi had not only reviewed the subject throughout Islamic history but had also attempted to adapt some of the concepts of earlier Islamic scholars to modern circumstances.
Hussain Muhammad Nassar, professor of Arabic language at Cairo University and winner of the Arabic language and literature prize, was cited for his role in the “Preservation of Classical Arabic to the End of the Fifth Century A.H.” and for his contributions to the development of Arabic lexicography.
The topic for the 2005 King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Language and Literature is Arabic Prose in the 4th and 5th Centuries A.H. The deadline for nominations is May 31, 2004.
Ulrich Sigwart, winner of the medicine prize, is a professor of cardiology at Geneva University, while Semir Zeki, winner of the science prize, is a professor of neurobiology at University College, London.
Professor Sigwart was cited for his role in conceiving and changing the approach to the treatment of coronary and extracoronary arterial disease worldwide.
Professor Zeki was honored for his seminal work on the organization of the visual brain. He was the first to show that the visual brain consists of different areas functionally specialized to process and perceive different attributes of the visual scene.
