Honours

Principal honours

1. 1975

   State Prize for Children's Literature

   Egyptian State (Supreme Council of Culture)

   Egypt's State Prize for Children's Literature, awarded for his collection 'Arab Stories' ('A Tale from Every Arab Country'), published by Dar al-Shaab.

2. 1981

   State Prize for Children's Culture, with the Order of the Republic

   Egyptian State (Supreme Council of Culture); President of Egypt

   He was the first person to receive Egypt's State Prize for Children's Culture, and was awarded the Order of the Republic (Second Class) with it.

3. 1991

   King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Language and Literature (Children's Literature)

   King Faisal Prize (King Faisal Foundation)

   His most prestigious honour. The 1991 prize topic was Children's Literature; he shared it with the Tunisian poet Ali Abd al-Qadir al-Siqilli. It was presented by Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz. The citation praised his efforts to spread awareness of children's literature through study, creative writing and the organisation of conferences and seminars; his drawing on everyday life in village and city, turning the familiar into enjoyable stories that carry knowledge and religious and moral values, in language suited to each stage of childhood; and a literary style that blends imagination and reality. He was nominated by the Arabic Department, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University.

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4. 2000

   New Horizons Award, Bologna Children's Book Fair

   Bologna Children's Book Fair (BolognaRagazzi, New Horizons category)

   The newly illustrated Dar El Shorouk edition of The Life of Muhammad in Twenty Stories, with pictures by Salah Bissar, won the fair's New Horizons prize, chosen from more than 1,500 titles from around the world.

5. 2000

   IBBY Honour List 2000 (Writing): the Toshka series

   International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), Basel

   Selected for the IBBY Honour List 2000 for writing, representing Egypt with his Toshka series about the Toshka development project in the southern desert. He travelled to the IBBY World Congress in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to receive it.

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6. 2007

   Nominated by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (three consecutive years)

   Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), Sweden

   The Bibliotheca Alexandrina nominated him, in the category 'Author and Promoter of Reading', for the world's largest children's literature award for three years in a row; the first dossier was submitted in May 2007. His name is on ALMA's published list of candidates for 2009.

7. 2012

   IBBY Honour List 2012 (Translation)

   International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)

   Named to the international Honour List a second time, now for translation: his Arabic rendering of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Muhammad’s Birthday: A Scene in Constantinople” (Al-Dar Al-Masriah Al-Lubnaniah, 2009).

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8. 2013

   Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Award (Bahrain)

   Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Award, Bahrain

   A pan-Arab award presented in Bahrain, which he received at its seventh awards ceremony, in April 2013.