TEHRAN – Top books on the war against ISIS were honored on Tuesday at the 2nd edition of the Biennial Martyr Hossein Hamedani Awards.

The awards ceremony took place at the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, the organizers of the awards event, which was launched in 2019.

The award has been named after Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani, a high-ranking military advisor with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who was martyred in October 2015 during a mission in Syria.

Books in six categories are awarded biennially.

“My Mood These Days” won the award in the Memory category. The book written by Roqieh Karimi recounts the memories of Amir-Hossein Haj-Nasiri, the commander of the Seyyed al-Shohada Brigade in Syria.

Haj-Nasiri has been totally paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries that happened on the frontline in Syria.

“This book not only recounts the memories of Amir-Hossein Haj-Nasiri, but also narrates memories of his comrades,” Karimi has said in a preface to the book.

“I think we would better call the book a story of resistance in Aleppo, Khan Tuman and Latakia rather than a memoir,” she added.

In the Research section, no award was given, however, “In the School of Hajji Qassem” by Ali Gorji received an honorable mention.

The book is a biography of Lieutenant-General Qassem Soleimani, RGC Quds Force chief who was martyred during a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020.

The award for best Novel and Documentary Story went to “Inscription of the General”, in which writer Akbar Sahrai has written a novel based on the life story of Abdollah Eskandari, an Iranian veteran who was martyred in a battle in Syria in 2014. 

“The Strange Story of a Birthday Celebration”, Martyr Mehdi Sameni-Rad’s biography by Javad Kalateh-Arabi, won the award in the Biography and Autobiography.

The Arabic book “Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi al-Asifi and His Intellectual and Political Role in Iraq” written by Amer Salah Ali Sad al-Makili won the award in the Politics and International category.

The book is about Muhammad Mahdi al-Asifi, a top Shia cleric and scholar in the Islamic Seminary of Najaf and a political activist in Iraq.

In the Children’s Story and Poetry category, no story won an award. However, Afshin Ala’s long versified story of General Soleimani’s martyrdom “Sarbaznameh” (“Book of Soldiers”) was picked as best poetry book.

Photo: A poster for the 2nd edition of the Biennial Martyr Hossein Hamedani Awards.

MMS/YAW