The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) has published the collections “Rabat, Capital of Lights” and “Cairo, City of a Thousand Minarets,” featuring the winning poems of ICESCO’s Prize “Culture Capital as Seen by Poets,” announced in 2022, on the occasion of the celebration of Rabat and Cairo as Culture Capitals in the Islamic World, as part of its Culture Capitals Program.
The prize, which is overseen by ICESCO’s Centre of Arabic for Non-Arabic Speakers, includes two categories: Rabat, Capital of Lights poem prize, and Cairo, City of a Thousand Minarets poem prize.

The aim was to contribute to the promotion of the cultural, civilizational and historical heritage of the two capitals, as well as enhance their efforts to promote culture in the Arab and Islamic worlds. The prize objectives also included fostering opportunities for the convergence of cultures and civilizational openness to stimulate poetic creativity in classical Arabic in the description of cities and publicizing the aesthetics of the Arabic language linked to authentic Arab history and heritage.

Entries were received from 150 candidates from 18 countries around the world, with one poem for each candidate. A specialized committee evaluated the poems according to standards of artistic quality and creativity, and determined the three winners for each category, selecting 45 poems to be published in the two collections, 22 poems for the collection “Rabat, Capital of Lights” and 23 poems for the collection “Cairo, City of a Thousand Minarets.”

Both collections can be downloaded on the ICESCO website via https://icesco.org/f2zf (Rabat collection), and https://icesco.org/1plb (Cairo collection).