Iranian Qari Yunes Shahmoradi Wins Saudi Arabia’s Otr Elkalam Quran Contest
He was among the four Quran reciters who had made it to the final round of the Quranic event, according to Akhbar24 website.
Shahmoradi received a cash prize of three million Saudi riyals for winning the top rank in the Quran recitation category.
The other three finalists in this category were Abdul Aziz Faqih from the host country who finished runner-up and Moroccans Zakariya al-Zirak and Abdullah Al-Dughri who came third and fourth, respectively.
In the category of Adhan (announcing the call for prayers), contestants from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Lebanon and Britain won the top four titles, respectively.
The second edition of the Otr Elkalam international Quran competition was held as an initiative of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA).
It was launched on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan (March 23).
It is designed to highlight the rich diversity of cultures in the Islamic world, and the vocal methods of reciting the Quran and raising the call to prayer.
This year, the contest attracted 50,000 Muslim entrants from more than 100 countries, all vying for qualification.
Of the 2,116 contestants who made the cut, 36 participants (18 from Quran recitation and 18 specializing in the call to prayer) qualified for the final stages.
In this competition, participants demonstrate their vocal capabilities by reciting verses of the Quran before a jury composed of experts in recitation, phonetics and maqamat (music structures).
The jury consisted of Sheikh Ahmed Nahas, the muezzin of the Grand Mosque in Makkah; Sheikh Mishari bin Rashed Al-Afasy, a well-known reciter and imam of the Grand Mosque in Kuwait; Abdul Rahim Nabulsi, secretary-general of Reciters and Teaching Recitation in Morocco; Bahloul Saeed Abu Arqoub, an expert in maqamat and a judge in international Quranic competitions from Libya; and Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, leading reciter of Al-Azhar Mosque in Egypt.
The total prize money for the competition exceeded 12 million Saudi riyals ($3.2 million).
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