Kahlil Gibran Award
for Transformation through the Arts
CARAVAN's Kahlil Gibran Award goes to an individual of artistic, literary, academic, spiritual or philanthropic distinction who has used the arts in exceptional ways for transformational purposes.
The inaugural CARAVAN Kahlil Gibran Award was presented to Elif Shafak, the best-selling novelist, public intellectual, and cultural commentator, who was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. The presentation was at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square in London, U.K. in August 2017.
Elif Shafak's storytelling has profoundly transcended Eastern and Western boundaries of spirituality and culture. Elif writes in both English and Turkish, and has published 21 books, 13 of which are novels, including the bestselling The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, Three Daughters of Eve and more recently, The Island of Missing Trees. As the most widely read women writer in Turkey, her books have been translated into over 50 languages and she has been awarded the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from France.
The inaugural Kahlil Gibran Award presented to Elif Shafak was an original artwork - a donkey sculpted and painted by the noted Egyptian contemporary artist Dr. Reda Abdel Rahman. The donkey symbolizes peace in both the Middle East and West. In the Middle East, the donkey also symbolizes “compassion,” as a beast of burden most often used by the poorest of the poor. Through Elif Shafak's work, she has demonstrated that the only way forward is “in peace and with compassion."
The award is named after Kahlil Gibran, the early 20th century Lebanese-American poet, artist and mystic, and author of the bestselling book The Prophet. As a supreme East-West figure, Gibran's life and work embodies CARAVAN’s vision and mission, as he artistically focused on peace, harmony, care for the environment, and the building of bridges between diverse peoples, creeds and cultures.
CARAVAN was privileged to present its Kahlil Gibran Award for 2025 to the celebrated Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla on October 29, 2025 in the desert oasis village of Tunis Fayoum in Egypt.
Mohamed Abla, the 2025 recipient of the Kahlil Gibran Award, is not only one of the most noted and respected artists in the Middle East, but his life and work profoundly embodies "using the arts for transformational purposes” in numerous ways, including employing the arts to build bridges between those of different backgrounds – cultural, political, religious and economic. Abla is also known for investing in and mentoring emerging artists. Additionally, he was instrumental in the establishment of CARAVAN's early local initiatives in Cairo.
Abla demonstrates the transformational power of art both through his own artistic work, as well as through his vision in founding the Fayoum Art Center which hosts artists from around the world, the Caricature Museum dedicated to the art of satire, and more recently the Abla Art Foundation which was established for the purpose of expanding understanding, cultural exchange, and human connection. There are also plans to open a contemporary art museum in Tunis Fayoum, Egypt.
Mohamed Abla is one of the Middle East’s most celebrated artists. A multimedia Egyptian artist, Mohamed was born in 1953 in Belqas in the Egyptian Nile Delta. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria (1973), and his career has led to him exhibiting all over the world – throughout Europe, the Middle East, to Cuba in the West and India to the East. His art has been acquired in prestigious museums around the globe. He is an activist as well. After the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, he was elected as part of the “Committee of 50” that wrote Egypt’s new constitution. He has been awarded numerous prizes. In 2022, Abla was awarded the prestigious Goethe Medal from Germany for his life’s artistic achievements, the first Arab artist to be awarded the prize. It was an award that he however returned in 2024, protesting Germany’s complicity in Gaza.
Inaugural "Kahlil Gibran Award" - Elif Shafak
Kahlil Gibran Award" for 2025 - Mohamed Abla
Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla with CARAVAN President, Paul G. Chandler
Read the Award Announcement
Watch the Award Presentation
Watch the Award Presentation
Novelist Elif Shafak with CARAVAN President, Paul G. Chandler