RIYADH, 17 February — On behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, presented the King Faisal International Awards for Service to Islam, Arabic Literature as well as those in the medicine and science categories.
The presentation ceremony, held in the spacious Al Faisaliah Conference Hall, was attended by Prince Charles as a special invitee, Riyadh Governor Prince Salman, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Governor of Asir and director general of the King Faisal Foundation, members of the royal family, Cabinet ministers, and a galaxy of distinguished guests, including diplomats and senior government officials.
Earlier, Prince Khaled welcomed Prince Charles, King Simeon II and Queen Margarita of Bulgaria as well as the princes and princesses of Europe for their presence at the awards ceremony.
Prince Charles, who is here on a three-day visit to the Kingdom, will inaugurate at the Al Faisaliah Center today an exhibition of his own paintings and those of Prince Khaled Al Faisal. The last such exhibition was held in London.
The King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies (Studies dealing with modern Arabic prose) was withheld as none of the nominated works measured up to the requirements. All the citations were read out by Abdullah Al-Othaimeen, secretary general of KFIP.
All the prizes carry a cash endowment of SR750,000 ($200,000), a certificate, hand-written in Diwani calligraphy, summarizing the laureate's work, and a commemorative 24-carat, 200-gram gold medal, uniquely cast for each prize.
Prince Salman, who is also the chairman of the High Commission for Donations to Bosnia, received, on behalf of the High Commission, the King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam.
In his citation, Othaimeen said the Saudi Arabian High Commission for Donations to Bosnia, set up in 1992, had provided much-needed relief supplies to war-ravaged communities and assistance in the reconstruction of homes and infrastructure.
Since its establishment in 1992, the High Commission had channeled aid worth SR2.6 billion, of which SR 1.675 billion was in financial assistance and around SR500 million provided by organizations working under the umbrella of the Finance Ministry. The citation praised Prince Salman for his efforts in mobilizing aid for Bosnia during a critical period of its history.
In his acceptance speech, Prince Salman said the High Commission, established by the order of King Fahd in 1982, rendered great service in the reconstruction of Bosnia by building roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, mosques, farms and shattered houses. He also thanked Prince Abdullah and Minister of Defense and Aviation Prince Sultan for their constant support to the body.
Professor Ibrahim A. Al-Saafin, professor of Arabic literature at the University of Jordan, and Professor. Mansour I. Al-Hazmi, professor of Arabic literature, King Saud University, were the joint winners of the King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Literature. They were cited for their contributions to the study of the various genres of modern Arabic prose.
Professor Al-Saafin has written numerous books and articles on the Arabic novel, short story and play, while Professor Al-Hazmi is one of the Kingdom's foremost literary critics. He has studied the modern Arabic historical novel and played a pioneering role in researching Saudi novel and short story.
In their acceptance speeches, Ibrahim and Al-Hazmi thanked King Faisal Foundation for conferring the award on them.
In medicine, Professor Sir Roy Yorke Calne of the University of Cambridge (UK), Professor Norman Edward Shumway of Stanford University (California) and Professor Thomas Earl Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) shared King Faisal International Prize for their research in organ transplantation.
Accepting the prize, Professor Calne referred to his 42 years of research on organ transplantation, referring in particular to his efforts to "address both the surgery and the biology of transplantation with a special interest in methods of preventing graft rejection."
Shumway, in his speech, said more than 50,000 patients had undergone heart transplantation with a current five-year survival expectancy of 75 percent.
Professor Sajeev O. John of the University of Toronto (Canada) and Chen Ning Yang of the State University of New York were the co-winners of KFIP in Science (Physics). John outlined a new method for the processing and transmission of information by optical means.
Accepting the prize, John said if the 20th century was the age of electronics, the 21st century will be known as the age of photonics whereby light could be trapped or caged in certain artificially created crystals. "Today, using laser light, undersea fiber optic cables carry our voice communications and data with such clarity that a pin drop in Riyadh can be heard clearly in Toronto.
John also paid tributes to Minister of Industry and Electricity Hashim A. Yamani who, he said, had impressed him as "a brilliant young post-doctoral scientist from Saudi Arabia. He might very well have forgotten me, but I have not forgotten him," he added.
Professor Chen Ning Yang , the co-winner of the King Faisal International Prize for Science, referred to Islamic architecture and said it was especially noted for the extensive use of beautiful and intricate symmetrical patterns.
