The Sard Al Thahab (Golden Narrative) Award is an annual award launched by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC) to support the popular art of Arabic storytelling across the Arab World. The Award has been created to recognise the long-standing tradition of storytelling in Arabic, including the constant spread of folk tales and legends, which has been an integral part of Arab heritage, culture, and identity.
It consists of six award categories: Emirati Narration, Narrators, Short Story for Unpublished Stories, Short Story for Published Stories, Illustrated Story, and Popular Narratives.
The Story behind the Name
“Narrative” as a concept started to gain interest in the field of literary criticism. It has become a critical approach that seeks to interpret literary texts and artworks. As a term, the art of narration emerged in the mid-1960s to refer to any artistic creation that relays a story from everyday life, popular tales, legends, or other literary sources. It goes without saying that any narration process requires a time, place, characters, and a main event. It relies on language or images.
It is noteworthy that the late Sheikh Zayed used the term "Sard" (narration) in one of his poems:
I knew well what befell him, but alas
I wish he mastered narration as he did grammar!
The connection between narrative and grammar in this verse combines the beauty of the story with the consistency and clarity of the language. Importantly, the word “narrative” appears in the verse based on its use in the Arabic language, indicating the orderly, seamless, and graceful sequence of words.
As for the word “golden”, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan used it to indicate beauty, fairness, and embellishment, as when he said:
How skillfully it was adorned and graced,
with gold and elegant calligraphy
The Award's name is a combination of both words: “golden” and “narrative”. Hence, the Award should serve as a means to discover literary beauty, consistency, and the ability to create, rediscover, or narrate a tale.
Award Objectives:
The Award was inspired by the visionary poetry of the UAE’s Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, to be a focal point for combining creativity and thought, to create an artistic movement that will make Sheikh Zayed's creative experience a focal point towards new forms of creativity.
• Focusing on the popular narrative that resonates with the Arab culture, acknowledging exceptional narrative compositions, publishing them, and presenting their creators.
• Highlighting contemporary pieces of fiction, uncovering emerging talents in this field, and recognising exceptional literary creations.
• Preserving popular narratives to enrich the cultural heritage of future generations by establishing a creative and academic connection with these narratives.
• Nurturing the illustrated storytelling that captures the essence of life in the UAE and the Arab World through the medium of photography and film.
• Recognising the contributions of storytellers who specialise in biographies, literature, and popular narratives, both within the local community and throughout the Arab World.
• Promoting exceptional works that explore the Emirati narrative in all its facets, through creative expression, scholarly examination, and critical analysis."
General Conditions:
1. The candidate must have contributed to the development of the Emirati narrative through creative or research work that addresses various aspects of the UAE's history and present.
2. A candidate may only enter only one work in one of the Award categories.
3. The nominated work may not be nominated for another award in itself or by proxy in the same year.
4. The nominated works must be composed in Arabic, with the exception of the Emirati Storytelling category, which allows submissions in Arabic or other languages.
5. Narrative or research work may be published or unpublished, but if previously published, no more than five years should have elapsed since their publication.
6. The Award is not granted to a work that has previously won a major Arab or foreign award.
7. Compliance with the conditions stipulated in the “form” for participation in each of the Award categories is required.
8. It is permissible to renominate the same work for the Award, provided that the time-period condition is met, and an application is submitted. A winner is entitled to apply for the prize again after 5 years of having won the Award.
Last day of submission: 31 May 2025
Address:
Sard Al Thahab Award
Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre.
Department of Culture & Tourism - Abu Dhabi.
Nation Tower B, Corniche, Floor 4
Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Shipments Address:
DCT Warehouse (Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre)
ICT CUBES PARK Musaffah Industrial - M-25 - Abu Dhabi.
Email: sardalthahab@dctabudhabi.ae
Phone: +97125995068
WhatsApp: +971509073089
The Award seeks to enhance and preserve the Emirati values and cultural heritage to inspire future generations. Consisting of six categories, it will aim to introduce the art of storytelling and narration, support related studies, and represent this art within the context of modern culture.
Chair of the Sard Al Thahab Higher Committee
An Emirati writer and media professional who graduated in Media Studies (specialising in Radio and Television) from Egypt in 1979. He has held several administrative positions, including General Manager of United Arab Emirates Television from Abu Dhabi, Director of the Media Training Centre at Al Bayan Press, Printing, and Publishing, Director of Training at Dubai Media Incorporated, and Director of the News Centre at Dubai Media Incorporated.
Throughout his career, he has served in various roles, including Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dubai Cultural and Scientific Association and Chair of the Media Committee. He is a member of multiple boards, including the Journalists Association, the Religious and Charitable Affairs Committee in Dubai, the Advisory Council of the College of Social and Human Sciences at UAE University, the Advisory Council of the College of Media at the University of Sharjah, and the Advisory Council of the College of Media at the American University in the Emirates.
Al Hamli has received several awards, including the Taryam Omran Award for Journalism, the Sharjah Award for Government Communication,” the Gulf Media Pioneers Award from the Gulf Radio and Television Corporation for GCC countries, and the Federal Personality Award from the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
Al Hamli’s publications include:
• Memory of Joy (2003)
• Whispers of Memory (2010)
• Wherever You Turn, There’s Zayed (2021)
• The Narrator Said (2024)
A Moroccan narratologist and critic. He was born in Casablanca (8 – 5 - 1955). He obtained a state doctorate in the Arts from the Mohammed the Fifth University, Rabat, and is a teacher of higher education at the College of Arts and the Human Sciences in Rabat.
He is a member of the consulting body for various journals in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, as well as a number of Arabic prizes. He won the highest Moroccan Prize for Literature in 1989 and 1997 , the Abd al-Hamid Shuman (Jordanian) Prize in 1992 , Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2016 in the Literary and Art Criticism category for Al-Fikr al-Adabi al-‘Arabi (Arabic Literary Thought), and Katara Prize in Narrative Critic for Assadriat Attatbiquia ( Narratology in practice) 2022.
He has published more than Twenty books on various aspects of Arabic Narrative, culture, Narratology and digital literature.
Miral al-Tahawy is an award-winning Egyptian creative writer whose novels and short stories have been internationally recognized alongside her prodigious record of academic research and service.
She currently serves as an affiliate member of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, AZ, where she is also an active Associate Professor of Modern Arabic Literature and Head of Classics and Middle Eastern Studies at the School of International Letters and Cultures (SILC).
Associate Professor of Modern Literature and Criticism in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at King Abdulaziz University - Saudi Arabia
She has won the Sharjah Award for Gulf Women's Creativity (2019) and the Sheikh Zayed Award for Young Author (2020-2021,15th edition). She also holds a PhD in Philosophy with a specialization in Arabic Language and Literature.
She published her book "Eshkalyat Al Thaat Al Saredah fee Al Rwayah Al Nesaayah Al Saudiah" (The Problems of the Narrated Self in the Saudi Feminist Novel) (1999 - 2012) (Critical Study) in 2020, and "Thaherat Al Raheel fee Al Qessah Al Qaserah fee Al Mamlakah Al Arabiah Al Saudiah" (The Phenomenon of Departure in the Short Story in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Artistic Study) in 2013, in addition to a collection of stories entitled "Baynahuma Barzakh" (Between Them Is an Isthmus) in 2017, and worked on a number of refereed scientific research and literary posts, and other texts and studies published in local and Arab newspapers and magazines.
Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Taibah University in Medina - Saudi Arabia
Prof Dr Mohammad Al Safrani is a Saudi Arabian professor of Modern Art Criticism and a faculty member of the Arabic Studies Department at University of Taibah, Medinah in Saudi Arabia. He is an active researcher, critic, poet and a senior Member of both the Scientific Council and the Academic Promotion Committee at Taibah University. He also runs the refereed Journal of Arts and Humanities, as Editor in Chief. He is currently the Dean of College of Arts and Humanities in Yanbu Branch of Taibah University.
In 2007, he was duly admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in modern Literary Criticism at King Saud University in Riyadh. Known for his endless enthusiasm towards research, he published three poetic collections, and more than twenty research papers. He also published varied studies in Literary Criticism, Modern Arabic Poetry, Cultural development and is widely known for his keen interest in Contrastive Analysis Studies (Almuhaqalah).
Prof Dr Al Safrani has issued plenty of books, including "Visual Formation in Modern Arabic Poetry", "The Tajweed of Modern Arabic Poetry", "Towards the Knowledge Society: Requirements of Cultural Development and Intellectual Security in Saudi Arabia", and "Poetry of Ghazi Al Gosaibi: an Artistic Study".
