TEHRAN -- The second edition of Iran’s Imitative Recitation Festival wrapped up in a ceremony in Qazvin where winners were announced and awarded on Monday evening.
The winners were named in three categories of distinguished reciters, excellent reciters and commendable reciters.
Muhammad Amin Nabilu, Muhammad Reza Poursafar, Mojtaba Malek Muhammadi, Muhammad Reza Taheri, Sobhan Abdollahi and Taha Asgarnejad were the winners in the first group.
Abolfazl Nabilu, Hadi Qorbani, Muhammad Sadeq Saremi, Ali Arjomandi, Amir Ali Kheyri, Muhammad Hussein Azimi, and Mobin Mahdavi were those awarded in the second group.
In the third group, Abolfazl Edalathah, Alireza Molayi, Abolfazl Ahmadi, Ali Mousavi Moqani and Muhammad Reza Najafi were named as commendable reciters.
The winners went home with cash prizes raging from 400 million to 1 billion rials.
Addressing the closing ceremony, Mostafa Majidi, the host, highlighted the efforts of the organizers and the good reception of the event by families in Qazvin.
Eight veteran Qur’an activists of the Qazvin province were also honored at the event.
A total of 52 young and teenage qaris took part in the final round of the festival in Qazvin. They competed in reciting the Holy Qur’an in the style of one of renowned Egyptian reciters.
This year’s festival built on the success of the inaugural event, which introduced the concept of imitative recitation—a practice where participants replicate the styles of renowned qaris—to a wider audience.
Last year’s event was held in Tehran’s Imamzadeh Saleh.