Sheikh Zayed Book Award

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is a literary award presented yearly to writers, intellectuals, publishers whose writings and scholarly publications contributed to Arab cultural, literary and social life. The award has been described as “the Arab World’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize”. The first award was in 2007. The total value of the prizes is DH 7,000,000 making it one of the richest literary awards in the world.

The award is named in memory of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates.

Beginning with 2013 awards, a new category was added called "Arabic Culture in Other Languages", "to honor best written works in Chinese, German and English languages on the subject of the Arabic civilization and culture including novels, short stories, poems, biographies, history and arts." In addition a number of other categories were merged, created or redefined.

In 2018, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award launched a translation grant, to encourage the translation of Arabic literature into other languages. The grant is open year-round to publishers and translators around the world to publish shortlisted or award-winning literary works from the Award’s Literature and Young Author prize categories.

In 2021, German philosopher Jürgen Habermas declined his Zayed Book Award, citing the UAE's political system (a repressive non-democracy). A media debate ensued with some German commentators arguing that he should not have renounced the award.

the Award presents a range of annual prizes in different categories such as ‘Literature’, ‘Translation’, ‘Arabic Culture in Other Languages’, and ‘Cultural Personality of the Year’.

The "Cultural Person of the Year" is the category which honours a prominent Arab or international figure (or organisation) who has contributed to the advancement of Arabic culture. It bestows an award of one million Dirhams (around $300,000) while the other categories receive around $200,000 each.

2007