{
  "id": 16072051,
  "title": "Riwaq Prize for Science and Culture 2026: Three books reopen questions in Arab and Islamic intellectual history",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/22/riwaq-prize-for-science-and-culture-2026-three-books-reopen-questions",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-22T15:53:48.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Peninsula Qatar",
    "slug": "the-peninsula-qatar",
    "url": "https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/22/10/2026/riwaq-prize-for-science-and-culture-2026-three-books-reopen-questions-in-arab-and-islamic-intellectual-history"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On 16 October 2026, the Berlin Arabic Cultural House and the German Orient Institute Beirut inaugurated the Riwaq Prize for Science and Culture during the fourth Arab Book Fair in Berlin. This prize acknowledges outstanding scholarly monographs on Arab cultures and societies, emphasizing original scholarship, innovative approaches, and critical perspectives. Designed for three language categories - Arabic, German, and English - its inaugural edition honored three books exploring major questions in Arab and Islamic intellectual and cultural history from unique scholarly viewpoints.\n\nThe Arabic-language award went to Dr Raed Al-Samhouri for his 2024 book, Ibn Taymiyya al-Tarikhi wa-l-Mustaʿad. This work examines the relationship between Ibn Taymiyya's historical figure and the image of that figure in contemporary consciousness. By placing Ibn Taymiyya within its historical, social, and political contexts, Al-Samhouri challenges reductive readings that confine his work to questions of violence and takfir. The jury praised the book's relevance to contemporary Arab contexts, adherence to scholarly standards, linguistic care, and the quality of its presentation.\n\nProf. Dr Yvonne Albers received the German-language award for her 2023 book, Beirut und die Zeitschrift Mawaqif. Eine arabische Intellektuellengeschichte 1968–1994. Instead of viewing the Beirut journal Mawaqif merely as a publication or literary reflection, Albers approaches it as a cultural and intellectual institution where ideas were produced, debated, and integrated. By tracing Mawaqif's intellectual life from 1968 to 1994, Albers reconstructs the history of ideas through one of the institutions shaping them, demonstrating how ideas develop through publishing, debate, and complex relationships among intellectuals, institutions, and political-social changes.\n\nNora K. Schmid was awarded the English-language prize for her 2023 book, The Ascetic Qur'an and its Kharijite Readers. This work offers a new perspective on early Qur'anic interpretation through close textual analysis and its historical and cultural context. By focusing on asceticism and Kharijite readers, Schmid sheds light on early Islamic religious worlds, reinterpreting them within broader historical contexts. The jury commended Schmid's exceptional language sensitivity and her ability to make early Islamic texts accessible through translation and analysis, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of early Islamic piety and interpretation.",
  "summary": "<p>Berlin: Der Divan &ndash; The Arabic Cultural House and the German Orient Institute Beirut presented the inaugural Riwaq Prize for Science and Culture on 16 October 2026, as part of the fourth Arab Book Fair in Berlin.</p> <p>The prize recognises outstanding scholarly monographs on Arab cultures and societies, particularly research that advances its field through original scholarship,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}