From April 29 to May 5, thousands of people filled the vast halls of Abu Dhabi’s largest conference center to attend the 33rd annual Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. While the event itself was founded in 1981, the scale and impact of the fair have grown tremendously. In 2020, for example, the fair took place over two days at a small cultural center on Saadiyat Island, an artificial island home to the United Arab Emirates’ Cultural District. Three years later, the fair had grown into a weeklong vibrant and expansive festival, providing a platform for more than 1,350 exhibitors from 90 countries – almost 150 more than the 2023 fair and including 12 additional countries. More than 230,000 visitors enjoyed free access to a wide variety of talks, book signings, and exhibitions. At the fair’s conclusion, more than 160,000 books were sold.

“The Abu Dhabi book fair brings many different vendors of books and written materials of all kinds to Abu Dhabi, as well as offers a chance for book publishers, writers, editors, and readers to meet one another and discuss their passion for written words,” said Maurice Pomerantz, a professor of literature and Arab crossroads studies at New York University Abu Dhabi and editor of The Library of Arabic Literature. “The publishing industry in the UAE has grown greatly in the past few years and seems ready to make new strides forward. The book fair in Abu Dhabi affords an important opportunity to celebrate outstanding books published in the UAE and the broader region and plan for future ambitious projects.”

Festival goers could wander the stalls for hours browsing books of varied genres or spend the day attending an array of presentations, exhibits, and events. A Saudi publisher displayed leather-bound books published in the late 19th century on the creation of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Not far from her was an Emirati author who writes and publishes self-help, or human development, books. After a morning browsing titles, attendees could check out a Food Network-style cooking demonstration by a charismatic Indian chef and watch young students from across the UAE receive awards for stories they wrote in a contest organized by the Abu Dhabi public library system to encourage writing among Arabic-speaking children.

Harry Creber, a recent graduate from New York University Abu Dhabi, attended the book fair for the first time this year. “I think the thing that surprised me most was just the size of it. The book fair filled up so much of the exhibition center, and there were so many independent publishers and different genres,” he said. “I’m not an Arabic speaker or reader, but you don’t hear much about an Arabic written tradition. I feel spoken word poetry is so much more famous globally and sometimes overshadows it.”

The festival featured as its “focus personality” Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Mahfouz’s writing career spanned from the 1930s to 2004. Mahfouz died in 2006. His most famous works include the “Cairo Trilogy” and “Children of the Alley.” The fair featured a full program with 13 sessions, including dialogues, a round table, and sessions on Mahfouz’s work. Furthermore, a special pavilion exhibited Mahfouz’s life, achievements, and work as well as a collection of rare behind-the-scenes photos from film productions of Mahfouz’s work from photographer Mahmoud Bakr’s archive.

“Naguib Mahfouz is one of the most important novelists to write in the Arabic language. His impact and legacy cannot be understated. In some ways, it was quite natural for him to be the featured writer at the UAE book fair,” Pomerantz noted. “I started reading Mahfouz as a student in Cairo in the mid-1990s. Upon returning to the United States, I would then recommend his novels to all my family and friends in the hopes that they would start to understand the region on its own terms and begin to appreciate this great writer.”

“Mahfouz in many ways influenced not just the Arabic novel in Egypt but all over the Arab world. This was clearly one of his greatest contributions,” Pomerantz added. “His novels were written in a style that was at once easy to understand for most readers but also beautiful and artful. One panelist spoke of how Mahfouz’s writing brought the Egyptian spoken dialect together with the classical written language. In some real ways, too, his writing communicated the dramatic stories of all sectors of the Egyptian population facing periods of tumultuous changes as a result of wars, de-colonial movements, and the rise of a globalized economy. His writing is a precious archive of a humanistic outlook on all of these great changes, which becomes, I think, even more precious with the passage of time.”

In 2022, the Arabic publication rights to all written works of the late Nobel laureate went to a small, young press in Egypt, Diwan Publishing. Umm Kulthoum, Mahfouz’s daughter and manager of his estate, selected Diwan to have the rights and supported the creation and production of newly redesigned covers for his books. Adorning the walls of Diwan’s stall at the fair was its new collection of Mahfouz’s 35 novels, each with a distinctive cover with original illustrations underneath titles in Arabic calligraphy. Speaking with visitors to the stall was Diwan’s sales manager, Ahmed Gamal, who exuded a contagious passion for Mahfouz.

“Naguib Mahfouz saved my life,” Ahmed said. “This fair is so significant because many people in Egypt still have stereotypes about him due to ‘Children of the Alley.’” Mahfouz’s most famous work, “Children of the Alley” discusses God and religion and was banned from publication in Egypt until 2006. Creber also spoke about Ahmed: “I still think about the steward at the Naguib Mahfouz counter, who was not only willing to show me a good place to start reading the author’s work but also gave me a full rundown of his own opinion of his writing strengths. He felt so passionate about the books he had on display that he was willing to cross the language barrier into his second language of English just to tell me how much he loved this author.” Ahmed embodied the spirit of the book fair in conveying a passion for reading, literature, and culture to the thousands of guests who visited the fair. Indeed, Creber noted that, above all else, “everyone was willing to engage in deep conversations.”

Alongside Mahfouz as the focus personality, the fair’s “book of the world” was “Kalila and Demna,” a renowned collection of fables featuring animal characters as the heroes. Believed to have originated from the Sanskrit “Panchatantra,” this influential work has been translated into numerous languages, with surviving illustrations found in manuscripts dating back to the 13th century. Among its notable characters are the lion, who serves as the king, the ox, Shetrebah, as his servant, and the two jackals, Kalila and Demna, who narrate the stories and play central roles. Bringing the tales to life were 20-foot sculptures of the mythical winged creatures flanking the doors of the fair’s entrance halls.

Ali Bin Tamim, the organizer of the book fair who is also chair of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre and secretary-general of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, stated, “‘Kalila and Demna’ is one of the most prominent works in Arab literature. It is recognized by Arab critics as a premier Arabic book and acts as an outstanding representation of cultural fusion between civilizations based on its origin, which combines languages such as Sanskrit from India, Pahlavi from Iran, and Arabic.” The book is celebrated for influencing writers from other cultures, notably the French poet Jean de La Fontaine, who drew inspiration from it in creating one of his finest fables, and the late Ahmed Shawqi, who crafted his significant collection for children based on it. In parallel with the book fair, the Louvre Abu Dhabi hosted the art exhibition “From Kalila wa Dimna to La Fontaine: Travelling through Fables.”

“Kalila and Demna” was just one example of how the fair demonstrated the link between literature and visual arts. One exhibit displayed ancient Qurans, including one dating back to the 13th century in the Ming dynasty. Furthermore, a sizeable section of the fair was dedicated to local artists exhibiting or selling their work. One local artist exhibited a giant portrait of the late Emirati president, Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, made entirely out of falcon feathers. At the next booth, a young Syrian artist, Mariam, stood next to her work – four mannequins each adorned in elegant dresses made entirely out of newspaper.

Entrance to the fair was not only free but also included a pass to visit the Louvre Abu Dhabi. For many residents of Abu Dhabi city, for whom the Louvre is less accessible due to its location on Saadiyat Island and entry fee, such a pass allowed them to make the trip for the first time.