Madar (Nouakchott) - The Chinguetti Prize council on Thursday, October 22, 2026, announced the winners of its 2026 edition, after reviewing the reports of specialised scientific committees and assessing the candidate works at a meeting held on October 15, according to a statement carried by the Mauritanian News Agency (AMI).
The Chinguetti Prize for Islamic studies went to Dr Mustapha Ben Hamouche for his work on the foundations, roots and modernity of Islamic urbanism. In science and technology, the prize was awarded to the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Nouakchott for its dynamic research environment and its contributions to extending stochastic processes to quantum physics.
The prize for letters and arts went to Professor Omar Ben Ishaq for his critical edition of "Manar al-Ha'ir fi tartib al-nawadir" by the scholar Abdallah Ben Aybih.
The council said the number of candidates rose 118% this year, from 30 nationalities including 17 Arab ones, and that for the first time five national and foreign scientific institutions applied.
