What happened
Khaleej Times reported the result on 23 October 2024: three students each won Dh500,000 at the eighth Arab Reading Challenge, and Hatem, aged nine and from Syria, was one of them, having read 400 books. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, presented the awards at Dubai Opera, as the Dubai Media Office recorded the same day.
He shared the title with Kady Bint Misfer of Saudi Arabia, 11, and Salsabil Sawalha of Palestine, 17. Three champions in a single edition is unusual for a competition that normally crowns one, and the government's own account of the evening presented all three as equal winners.
The boy who wants to be a poet
Asked to speak, Hatem quoted a famous line of Arabic verse: "A mother is a school. If you prepare her, you will prepare people of good origins." It is a line known to most educated Arabic speakers, and a nine-year-old deploying it on a national stage is a demonstration of exactly what the competition tries to measure: not how many pages a child has turned, but what has stayed with him.
Khaleej Times reported his ambition simply. He wants to become a renowned poet. Among the three champions of 2024, all of whom named a future, his was the one that pointed back at the books rather than away from them.
The scale of the competition
The eighth edition of the Arab Reading Challenge drew 28.2 million participants from 229,620 schools across 50 countries, supervised by 154,643 teachers, according to Khaleej Times. Pupils read across the school year, record and summarise what they have read, and are then examined round by round on comprehension and argument until a handful remain.
The money matches the scale. Individual champions received Dh500,000 each; the winning school, Al-Ebdah School in Dubai, received Dh1 million; the community champion from a non-Arab country, Mohammed Al-Fateh Al-Rifai, received Dh100,000; and Mohamed Ahmed Hassan of Egypt won the People of Determination category.
A Syrian child on a Dubai stage
The sources gathered here do not say where Hatem lives or attends school, and this page will not guess. What they do establish is that a nine-year-old Syrian entrant read 400 books in a competition year and out-argued the entrants who reached the final rounds with him.
The research record notes variant spellings of his name across outlets, including Hatem Tarkawi and Hatem Mohammed Jassim Al Tarkawi, which is normal for transliteration from Arabic and worth stating so that readers searching under one spelling can find the other.
What is documented, and what is not
Firmly established: the date, the venue, the prize, his age of nine, the figure of 400 books, his stated ambition and the quotation he gave. Not established here: his school, his city, his family, his date of birth, or anything that has happened since October 2024.
He is a young child and the sources are a single day's coverage of a ceremony. The record is short by nature, and the honest version of it is the one printed above.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatem Al Turkawi | Syria | Being crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion in 2024 | Age 9 |
| Kady Bint Misfer | Saudi Arabia | Being crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion in 2024 | Age 11 |
| Hadeel Anwar Al Zubair | Sudan | Winning the fourth Arab Reading Challenge | Age 13 |
| Afaf Raed Sherif | Palestine | Winning the second Arab Reading Challenge | Age 17 |
| Salsabil Sawalha | Palestine | Being crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion in 2024 | Age 17 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- He was crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion at Dubai Opera on 23 October 2024
- He was nine and had read 400 books (Khaleej Times)
- He won Dh500,000, one of three equal champion prizes
- He quoted classical Arabic verse and said he wants to be a poet
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No source read states his date of birth, school or city
- Nothing documents his family
- No coverage after October 2024 was found in this record
Questions people ask about Hatem Al Turkawi
How old is Hatem Al Turkawi?
He was nine when he was crowned in October 2024. No source read here gives his date of birth.
How many books did he read?
400, according to Khaleej Times.
How much did he win?
Dh500,000, one of three equal champion prizes at the 2024 edition.
What did he say on stage?
He quoted the line: "A mother is a school. If you prepare her, you will prepare people of good origins."
What does he want to be?
A renowned poet, according to Khaleej Times.
Why is his name spelled differently in different places?
Transliteration from Arabic varies. Outlets have used Hatem Tarkawi, Hatem Al Tarkawi and Hatem Mohammed Jassim Al Tarkawi.
Is Hatem Al Turkawi on Wikipedia?
The research record found no standalone Wikipedia article about him.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Hatem’s story?
How many books did Hatem Al Turkawi read?
How old was he when he was crowned?
What does he say he wants to become?
Sources
- UAE: 3 students win Dh500,000 prize each in Arab Reading Challenge — Khaleej Times, 2024-10-23
- Mohammed bin Rashid crowns Arab Reading Champions in 2024 — Dubai Media Office, 2024-10-23
- Mohammed bin Rashid crowns Syria's Hatem Tarkawi, Saudi's Kadi Khathaami, Palestine's Salsabil Sawalha as 2024 Arab Reading Champions — Emirates 24|7, 2024-10-23
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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