Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) for Service to Islam for the year 1430H [2010], Makkah Governor Prince Khalid Al-Faisal announced at a press conference in Riyadh last night. The Turkish leader was recognized for his achievements in the political and administrative spheres and his demonstration of judicious leadership in the Islamic world. President Erdogan received praise for both his reformist policies at home and his statesmanship abroad, which included defending the rights of the Palestinian people and encouraging dialogue between civilizations.

This year’s King Faisal International Prize for Science was awarded jointly to American Professor Enrico Bombieri of Princeton University and Australian Professor Terence Chi-Shen Tao of the University of California, Los Angeles. Bombieri has made pioneering contributions to various branches of mathematics, including number theory, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, and minimal surfaces. Tao is a world-renowned mathematician working in a number of branches of mathematics, including harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics, number theory, and signal processing.

The King Faisal International Prize for Medicine was awarded jointly to German Professor Reinhold Ganz of the University of Bern and Canadian Professors Jean-Pierre Pelletier and Johanne Martel Pelletier of Montreal University. Ganz has dedicated his career to the study and treatment of diseases of the hip joint. The Pelletiers have contributed substantially to translational research in the field of osteoarthritis.

The King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Language and Literature was awarded jointly to Algerian Professor Abderrahman El-Houari Hadj-Saleh and Lebanese Professor Ramzi Mounir Baalbaki. Elhaj-Saleh was recognized for his insightful analysis of Al-Khalil’s linguistic theory, as well as his prominent contributions to the advancement of Arabic linguistics and the Arabicization movement. Baalabakki was honored for his outstanding original research on Arabic grammatical thought, which have enhanced Arabic grammar education in western institutions and familiarized western researchers with the fundamental manuscript of Si-Bawaihi.

The Prize for Islamic Studies was withheld for lack of sufficiently meritorious nominations.