The Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Sciences (SQHCCS) has had a powerful material impact on the literary and artistic movements witnessed by the Sultanate of Oman. The Centre fosters cooperation with cultural institutions in other countries, introducing Omani culture in a receptive environment. The Centre functions under the mandate of Royal Decree No. 52/2012, which established it as a cultural and scientific body with functions related to the protection of culture, science and the arts. It oversees several bodies and institutions concerned with culture and thought, including mosques, institutes of Islamic science and Holy Qur’an schools. It also has responsibility for the Sultan Qaboos Complex for Culture and Entertainment in Salalah, the Oman Centre for Traditional Music, the Sultan Qaboos College for Teaching Arabic to Non-Native Speakers, and the Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Literature.
The Centre is also responsible for overseeing the Sultan Qaboos Academic Chairs, consisting of the 16 chairs, professorships and fellowships established in the name of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos at 13 international universities. These endowments range in discipline from the humanities to the applied sciences. One of the most important tasks assigned to these chairs is that of conducting studies and research in their respective fields. Graduate students undertaking master’s and doctoral studies are supervised, and seminars, conferences and scientific workshops are also facilitated.
The Sultan Qaboos College for Teaching Arabic to NonArabic Speakers provides a valuable service in facilitating communication and thereby strengthening bonds between the many language cultures that inhabit the Sultanate’s human landscape. The college offers an eight-week course that includes 160 study hours as part of an integrated cultural programme, with extracurricular visits to the country’s most important archaeological, and historical sites, lectures on Omani culture, lessons in Arabic calligraphy, and artistic workshops.
The Sultan Qaboos Youth Complex for Culture and Entertainment in Salalah is a multi-purpose social, sports and artistic facility for young people that offers them direct access to outstanding figures in these various activities. They are also given the unique opportunity of displaying the products of their work and talent in a supportive environment. The Complex thus serves as a model arena in which creativity and individual endeavour are encouraged and society thereby enriched. It fosters pride in achievement, feeds the spirit and raises cultural awareness among young people, offering them a cohesive version of community, where their contributions to culture, sport and recreation are shared and valued.
The Sultan Qaboos Awards for Culture, Arts and Literature bring recognition to intellectual achievement and creative endeavour, from a respect for these gifts deep-rooted in Omani culture, along with a belief in the value of continuity between past and present in a way that enriches the current intellectual and literary environment On 18 December 2019, the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science announced the themes of the upcoming ninth round of the Awards, open only to Omani entrants.
The 2020 competition focus was ‘Realising Oman’s Heritage’ in the Culture category; ‘Drama Groups’ in the Arts category; and the ‘Feature Article’ in the Literature category.
Announcement of the competition themes for 2020 coincided, as is the practice annually, with the celebration honouring the Award winners of the previous session, which was open to all Arab contestants. Winner in the Literature category was Iraqi poet and writer Basem Furat, who received the Award for his contribution under the heading ‘Travel Writing’; while Egyptian singer Ali al Haggar took the Award in the Arts category on the ‘Arab Music’ theme.
The jury withheld the 2019 Culture Award, which had a ‘Sociology Studies’ theme heading, on the grounds of inadequacies in the quality of submissions reviewed. The winners were awarded the Order of Merit for Culture, Science, Arts and Literature, as well as a cash prize of RO100,000. On 25 December 2019, the Centre celebrated the winners of the 29th Sultan Qaboos Competition for Memorisation of the Holy Qur’an at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Bawshar, with the participant numbers up once again.