The Cairo International Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the Arab World, has kicked off Wednesday in Egypt's capital with a record number of participating countries.
The 47th edition of one of the biggest book fairs in the world, which will continue until Feb. 10, has 850 publishers from 34 Arab and non-Arab countries taking part.
The unprecedented number for the cultural event is a step up from last year's fair, in which 850 publishers from 26 Arab and non-Arab countries participated. There are 21 Arab countries participating this year, including the UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Palestine, Syria, Algeria and Bahrain, which is this edition's guest of honor.
Other guest honorees include prominent writers such as Chinese novelist Leo Gen Yun, Lebanese writer George Corm, Moroccan writer Hassan Orid and Tunisian novelist Shoukry El-Mabkhout. There are 550 publishers participating in the fair from Egypt alone, and 250 publishers participating from the rest of the Arab states.
On the other hand, 50 publishers from 13 non-Arab countries are participating, these countries include Germany, France, China, Greece, Russia and Italy. The event's theme is "Culture on the Front line", which reflects the view of cultural reform as the most powerful channel through which society can better itself, as well as protect itself from ideological demise.
The event's person of the year is the late Egyptian novelist Gamal El-Ghitani, who died last October and was one of Egypt's most prominent writers and scholars. The fair's theme last year was "Culture and Renovation", which similarly reflected the need for cultural reform to propel renovation of current beliefs and ideologies in society to move towards innovation.
The person of the year however, was prominent Egyptian Muslim scholar and liberal reformer Mohamed Abdu, who was one of the founding fathers of Islamic modernism in the 19th century. The Cairo International Book Fair is the oldest book fair in the Arab World, it was founded in 1969 in celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of Cairo.
The first edition of the fair was supervised by prominent Egyptian writer Soheir El-Calamawy, who was later honored by the fair as its person of the year in its 2008 edition. The fair is annually held at the Cairo International Fair Grounds in Cairo's Nasr City neighborhood, it welcomes around two million visitors every year.
It is organized and coordinated by prominent Egyptian publishing house and book retailer the General Egyptian Book Organization, which is the Arab World's biggest publisher. The book fair has become a staple cultural event in Egypt and the Arab World over the years, awaited by publishers, writers and readers alike.