Cultural Village Foundation-Katara announced Wednesday that the number of participants in Katara's seventh award for Qur'an recitation reached 1,315 representing 64 Arab and foreign countries.
Organised under the theme: 'Decorate the Qur'an with your voices', the total number of Arab participants reached 685 representing 18 Arab states, along with 360 participants from 46 foreign countries, with Maghreb countries topping the list with 307 participants, followed by Egypt, Sudan and Somalia with 233 participants.
The event also saw participants from the Levant countries, including Iraq with 93 participants, while the number of participants from GCC states reached about 52.
The sorting committee will embark on evaluating the performance of all participants to select the best 100 participants to qualify for the finals that will be held in Doha, Katara said. It added that 100 qualified participants will then take part in the seventh round finals through 20 TV episodes with five participants competing in each episode. Thereafter, one qualified contender will be selected from those five participants to further compete in the semi-finals.
The nomination for the award had been opened from Oct 1 until Dec 15, 2023. The award aims to encourage outstanding talents in Qur'an recitation, as well as to discover talented people who need support, in addition to paying tribute to innovators from those reciters and to spur the young generation to adhere to the religious teachings and be aware of duties towards religion and the Islamic message.
The award aims to encourage Muslims to pivot towards reading the Holy Qur'an proficiently, in terms of recitation and understanding. The award for the competition is worth QR900,000, with the first winner receiving QR500,000, second QR300,000 and the third QR100,000.
