RIYADH, 17 April 2007 — On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and Minister of Defense and Aviation, presented the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies to Roshdi Hifni Rashed from the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris at a glittering ceremony here last night.
Several members of the royal family including Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, director-general of the King Faisal Foundation, attended the ceremony at the Prince Sultan Hall of the Al-Faisaliah Hotel.
Two prominent Arab scholars from Morocco and Egypt, Muhammad A. Al-Omari and Mustafa A. Nasif respectively, shared the 2007 King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) for Arabic Language and Literature, while two cancer experts from the United States and Canada jointly received the prize for medicine.
James Fraser Stoddart, a British professor from the University of California, received the prize for chemistry in the category of science. The KFIP for Service to Islam was awarded to Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev.
Each of the five prize categories consists of a certificate summarizing the laureate’s work; a commemorative 200 gram 24 carat gold medal uniquely cast for each prize; and a cash award of SR750,000.
The KFIP has acted as a springboard for laureates who have won national and international recognition. Twelve KFIP winners have become Nobel Prize laureates so far.
In his welcome speech, Prince Khaled thanked Crown Prince Sultan for attending the ceremony. “This evening, Riyadh celebrates intellectual ingenuity as it has earlier embraced political ingenuity at the hands of King Abdullah,” he said.
He said it was only through creativity that the Arab and Islamic nation could overcome backwardness and realize its responsibility as the communicator of Allah’s message.
In the citation read out by Abdullah Al-Othaimeen, secretary-general of the KFIP, Roshdi Hifni Rashed was recognized for his translations and essays on Muslim contributions to science. In his acceptance speech, Roshdi said science was a cornerstone of the Islamic city and the Islamic community.
He said Islamic communities were in desperate need of science and scientific values and minds. Muhammed A. Al-Omari, professor of rhetoric at the King Muhammad V. University in Rabat, shared the prize with professor Mustafa A. Nasif of Ain Shams University (Cairo) for their distinguished studies in Arabic rhetoric.
In his speech, Al-Omari recalled his association with the Arabic Department of King Saud University (KSU), where he had worked in the mid 1970s. The ancient Arabic rhetoric was once a rich and flourishing science. However, like its Western counterpart, it has suffered for several centuries from the weakness of linguistics, logic and philosophical knowledge, he said.
Mustafa Nasif was recognized for his comprehensive, diversified and highly original research into Arabic rhetoric as it related to the origins from which modern Arabic rhetoric derived.
Thanking the Foundation for the award, Nasif, who had also taught at KSU almost 50 years ago, said the KF Prize “crowns my lifelong relationship with the Kingdom. I am particularly privileged to join such an elite group of laureates from the East and the West.”
Fernand Labrie of Canada and Patrick Craig Walsh of the US received the King Faisal Prize for Medicine. Labrie was cited for his role in developing LHRH agonists and combined androgen blockage in the treatment of prostate cancer.
Walsh was recognized for developing nerve sparing radical surgery for prostate cancer.
In the science category, Britain’s James Fraser Stoddart, professor of NanoSystems Sciences, University of California, received the prize for his efforts in nano-science in the field of chemistry, primarily for his work in molecular recognition and self-assembly.
