Riyadh: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former prime minister of Malaysia, was pronounced winner of the King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) for his service to Islam.
Secretary-General of KFIP, Dr Abdullah Al Othaimeen, announced the names of the winners on Monday evening.
The award for Islamic Studies was awarded to Khalil Ebrahim Inalcik from Turkey and Mohammad Adnan Bakhit Al Sheyyab from Jordan.
The prize for Arabic Language and Literature was withheld this year.
This year's topic was "studies concerned with tendencies of renewal in Arabic poetry up to the end of the ninth Hijri century".
The selection committee justified withholding the prize for the aforementioned category citing a lack of entries that met the set requirements.
The prize in the field of medicine was awarded to Professor James Alexander from the US and Professor Shinya Yamanaka from Japan for their research in stem cell treatment.
