Winners of the” Sultan Qaboos award for culture, arts and literature” announced

Muscat: The Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science, at the Diwan of the Royal Court, today announced the winners of the 13th edition of Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Literature.

The 2026 edition, which was allocated to Omanis only, covered the areas of “Family and Childhood Studies in the Sultanate of Oman”, “Arabic Calligraphy” and “Short Stories”.

Calligrapher Sami bin Zain al Ghawi won first place in the field of Arabic calligraphy (Arts branch). In the field of “Short stories” (Literature branch), writer Yahya bin Salam al Mandhari was granted the first award in recognition for his collection titled “A Short Time for Panic”, while the award was withheld in the field of “Family and Childhood Studies in the Sultanate of Oman” (Culture branch).

Habib bin Mohammed al Riyami, Chairman of the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science, delivered a speech during which he explained that the decision to withhold the award in the field of “Family and Childhood Studies” was based on the recommendation of the committee, after the results of sorting and arbitration showed the existence of some methodological observations about the some of participating inputs/works—notably observations related to the soundness of the research structure, the accuracy and clarity of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks and the extent to which the works meet the general conditions of the award.