The King Faisal Foundation was established in 1976 by the sons of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. The Director-General is HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. The Foundation is one of the largest philanthropic Foundations in the world.
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The foundation presents an annual prize, King Faisal International Prize, to "dedicated men and women whose contributions make a positive difference". The foundation awards prizes in:
Each of the five prizes, awarded annually, consist of a certificate hand written in Diwani calligraphy summarizing the laureates work; a 24 carat 200 gram gold medal—uniquely cast for each winner; and a cash prize of SR 750,000 (USD $200,000). The prizes are awarded at a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by the King of Saudi Arabia.
The first King Faisal International Prize was awarded to Sayyid Abul A'ala Maududi in the year 1979 for his Service to Islam. This prestigious award was awarded in 1986 to Ahmed Deedat for his excellent services for Islam. In 2009 the prize went to Ronald Levy, its first Jewish recipient.[1]
The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies was established in 1983. Based in Riyadh, the centre is an independent, not-for-profit institution financed by the King Faisal Foundation. The center studies issues affecting the Arab and Muslim worlds, and organizes a number of conferences each year.
In keeping with the goals of the King Faisal Foundation, the Center is dedicated to serving Islamic civilization, supporting continuing research, and encouraging cultural and scientific activities in a number of fields. The Center summarizes its mission as follows:
Alfaisal University is a private non-profit institution which aspires to be a world-class research university committed to the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge in the fields of business, engineering, life sciences and medicine, and to the development of knowledge-based economies [2]
The Library's collection covers the fields of Islamic Studies and Islamic Civilization. At present, there are more than 250,000 volumes in Arabic and Latin languages. There is also a collection of rare and out-of-print periodicals and more than half million articles. A separate audio-visual research library has more than 11,000 audio and videocassettes, slides, and films, which contain lectures and documentary material related to the Center’s various activities and interests.
As part of the Foundation’s contribution to preserving Islamic culture and highlighting the contributions made by Muslim and Arab scholars, The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies has undertaken the challenging mission of locating, authenticating, acquiring, or copying, and indexing all known Islamic manuscripts worldwide. In addition to nearly 23,000 hand-written texts, some of which are more than 1,200 years old, the manuscript archives have more than 18,000 microfilms and hundreds of photocopies. The majority of the microfilms are acquired through mutual agreements with the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, the Library of Congress, and the British Library. Databases save researchers up to 70% of the time they would normally spend searching catalogs for information pertaining to manuscripts located elsewhere in the world.
The King Faisal Foundation is also involved in promoting greater cultural and artistic ties between Europe and Saudi Arabia, principally through the Painting and Patronage initiative which was launched in 1999.