There Is a Television Program Called 'Million Dollar Poem' in Abu-Dhabi

Abu-Dhabi's annual televised competition, Million Dollar Poem, concluded by crowning Rajih al-Hamidani of Kuwait the 2016 champion. Rajih al-Hamidani's Nabati poem garnered five million dirham (also known as $1.36 million). Jury member Ghassan al-Khatib explains "Contrary to other peoples, poetry for the Arabs is not just an art. It records their lives and documents events." More:

With his Nabati poem, Kuwait's Rajih al-Hamidani was crowned 2016 champion of Million Dollar Poem, staged in oil-rich Abu Dhabi for a seventh year, and took home a prize of five million dirham ($1.36m).

"This is the biggest achievement of my life," said Hamidani after winning the 17 May final. Fans who had travelled from Kuwait chanted and danced around him as he carried the winner's red banner. Hamidani, who studies law in Cairo, keeps the flag for a year, after which he can defend the title or pass it on.

The winning poem describing Hamadani's passion for writing put him ahead of five other finalists. Audiences cheered after every quartet of his Nabati poetry, which uses Bedouin dialect and is favoured in the Gulf but often incomprehensible for other Arabs.

Some Arab royals are known for their passion for Nabati poetry, including Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who has a dedicated page on his website. The competition takes its cue from the pre-Islamic Okaz poetry festival near Mecca, where poets from across the peninsula recited their finest works of classical verse.

The winning poems used to be penned in gold and pinned to the walls of the Kaaba shrine in the Saudi city that later became Islam's holiest site. Many of those poems are still taught in schools across the Arab world.

"I hope that we will surpass Okaz" in importance, said Issa al-Mazreoui, a member of the organising committee. "We have created a new generation of poets."

Continue reading and watch the finals at Middle East Eye.