The final round of the third Katara Prize for Prophet’s Poet competition has begun at Katara – the Cultural Village.
Thirty contestants shortlisted from a total of 942 entries are competing in the finals.
Over four days, they will present their poems before a judging panel comprising experts from Qatar and other Arab countries.
The competition concludes tomorrow with an award ceremony at the Katara Opera House at 8.30pm, during which the winners will be announced.
The award carries cash prizes worth a total of QR4.2mn, Katara has said in a statement.
The contest, featuring original Arabic poems on the life and traditions of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), is divided into two categories — classic poetry (Shaar Al Faseeh) and colloquial poetry (Shaar Al Nabti).
The organising committee received 853 entries for classic poetry and 89 entries for colloquial poetry from across the Arab region as well as several non-Arab countries. They included 86 women and 46 participants from non-Arab countries.
The 15 best entries were shortlisted in each category for the finals.
On the first and second days of the final round, five contestants will be shortlisted in each of the two categories.
Three winners will then be selected from the five in each category.
The six winners from the two categories will be awarded prizes at the closing ceremony.
The first-prize winner in each category will get a cash prize of QR1mn while winners of the second and third positions will take home QR700,000 and QR400,000, respectively.
The prize aims to keep people, especially the younger generation, attached to the history and traditions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the organising committee has said.
The judging panel for the classic poetry category comprises three experts from Qatar, Kuwait and Oman while the panel for colloquial poetry features three experts from Oman, Morocco and Jordan.
The final round of the competition will be telecast by Qatar TV.
The winning entries and other selected poems from the competition will be published by Katara Publishing House in a book.
N al-Mutairi from Kuwait and Mohamed al-Harbi from Kuwait.
