Between Books and Politics: Cairo International Book Fair As A Field Configuring Event

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Between books and politics: Cairo International Book Fair as a field

configuring event
Article in History and Anthropology · December 2016

DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2016.1268135
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Between books and politics: Cairo International

Book Fair as a field configuring event
Ido Shahar
To cite this article: Ido Shahar (2016): Between books and politics: Cairo
International Book Fair as a field configuring event, History and Anthropology, DOI:
10.1080/02757206.2016.1268135
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HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2016.1268135
Between books and politics: Cairo International Book Fair as a

field configuring event
Ido Shahar
Department of Middle Eastern History, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This article analyses the Cairo International Book Fair as a “field Received 25 May 2016
configuring event” (FCE), namely, as a recurrent mass event that Accepted 30 November 2016
both reflects the social fields surrounding it and contributes to the
KEYWORDS
shaping of these fields. More specifically, it is argued that the Cairo book fair; field
Cairo International Book Fair constitutes a major FCE in Egyptian configuring event; political
society, which plays a significant role, not only in the publishing discourse
field and in the cultural and economic fields at large, but also in
the political field. Focusing on the political field, the article traces
how the Cairo International Book Fair in recent decades both
reflected key struggles and developments in the Egyptian political
field and affected these struggles. In the 1980s, the fair served as
a platform for voicing and negotiating various positions toward
Egypt’s relations with Israel; in the 1990s, it served as a platform
for negotiating the relations between Islamists and Liberals; and
in the 2000s, it served as a platform for negotiating the
“permitted” level of criticism toward Mubarak’s regime. The article
thus shows that the Cairo International Book Fair constitutes a
useful prism for examining developments in the Egyptian political
field over the years.
Introduction
Swarms of people were huddling together in the passageways of Pavilion 4—a huge exhi-
bition space packed with books published by Dār al-Maʿrīf, one of the major governmental
publishing houses in Egypt. Visitors were elbowing one another, trying to gain a better
position near the book stalls and a better opportunity to thumb the books. In one of
the corners, long queues were stretching in front of the two young cashiers, who
seemed to manage, somehow, to remain calm and detached from the hassle around them.
Outside the pavilion, people were strolling leisurely, enjoying the warm, spring-like Feb-
ruary sun, holding plastic bags brimming with cheap stationery, children’s gifts and books.
Fifty meters from Dār al-Maʿrīf’s pavilion, two additional queues were forming, one of men
and the other of women, at the entrance to al-Ahram publishing house’s pavilion. Waiting
patiently for their turn to be examined by two middle-aged security officers (again, a man
and a woman, respectively), people were looking amusedly at a group of enthusiastic chil-
dren, who had been watching a show presented in a portable, plain-looking, puppet
theatre.
CONTACT Ido Shahar idoshah@gmail.com

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 I. SHAHAR
Walking past the engaged children—without so much as a glance toward the puppet
show—a group of four teenage boys were following, from a safe distance, three teenage
girls, who were heading toward the line for soft drinks, exchanging whispers and giggling.
As the girls bought Coca Colas and Seven Ups, a small crowd had been applauding politely
in honour of a young poet, who had just finished reading his poems at the “Cultural Café”
(al-Maqhā al-thaqafī). Nearby, in the “Pavilion of Investments” (Sarāyāt al-istithmār), a
much larger crowd was directing questions to the panellists in a public debate on the
Egyptian government’s policy regarding the sale of state-own land to foreigners. A
mini-commotion arose in the pavilion as one of the panellists claimed that he was
being silenced by the chairman because he criticized the government. A fellow panellist
was quick to intervene, stating ironically that “you people can’t say what you want
because you’re always too busy saying that you can’t say what you want … ”. A few
minutes later the chairman ended the debate, and the crowd moved on to the nearby
“Sixth of October Hall” (Qāʿa sīt Oktober), where a debate concerning “The Crisis in Our Uni-
versities” was about to begin.
These diverse activities, and many-many others, took place on a single afternoon at the
twenty-eighth Cairo International Book Fair (henceforth—the Book Fair) held in February
1996.1 The Cairo book fair is an annual fair organized by the General Egyptian Book Organ-
ization (GEBO, or the Book Organization as it is generally referred to in the Egyptian
Media)—a government agency that was established in 1961 as the publishing arm of
the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.2 The Chairman of the Book Organization’s board of direc-
tors, who is also the Deputy Minister of Culture, is personally appointed by a special pre-
sidential decree. Over the years—and especially under Mubarak’s presidency—the agency
has gained authority not only over governmental publishing, but also over all other
national and public activities in the field of books and publishing, such as the establish-
ment and management of public libraries and national archives, the preservation of
rare manuscripts, the enforcement of authors’ copyrights, translation to and from
Arabic, and the promotion of Egyptian literature abroad.3
The Book Fair is the most celebrated of the Book Organization’s activities. The oldest
and largest book fair in the Arab world, it was initiated by the Egyptian Ministry of
Culture in 1969, in celebration of the millennial anniversary of the founding of Cairo,4
which coincided with the jubilee of the 1919 uprising against the British.5 What was
meant to be a solitary event that marked “a millennium of cultural life in Cairo”
became, however, “a success story” and was immediately embraced by both the publish-
ing industry and the general public. In light of the success, it was decided to turn the fair
into an annual event (al-Manshawi and Abu Zayd 2013).
In terms of international publishers’ participation, the Cairo book fair constitutes one of
the largest book fairs in the world: it is attended, every year, by hundreds of publishers
from dozens of countries, which present millions of titles.6 Indeed, shortly after its estab-
lishment, the Cairo book fair came to occupy a pivotal position in the Egyptian publishing
field: during the ten days or so of the fair—which traditionally takes place during the last
week of January and the first week of February—the Egyptian publishing industry gener-
ates approximately half of its annual revenue.7 Moreover, the Book Fair has gradually
acquired significance not only in the Egyptian publishing field but also in the broader cul-
tural and political fields in Egypt. It appears that over the years, the relative success/failure
of the annual Cairo book fairs had become a criterion in itself for evaluating Egypt’s
HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY 3
position in the world in general and in the Arab world in particular. This view is apparently
embraced by both government-sponsored and oppositional newspapers, which highlight,
each from their own perspective, the glass half full or half empty in each year’s fair.8
It is the Cairo book fair’s role in the political field—and especially in Egyptian political
culture and discourse—that is the focus of this article.9 To explore this role, I will analyse
the Cairo book fair as a field configuring event (FCE). The term “field configuring event” was
coined by sociologists and anthropologists to denote mass events such as tradeshows,
professional gatherings, technology contests and conferences that encapsulate and
shape the development of entire fields (Meyer, Gaba, and Colwell 2005; see also
Moeran 2010). According to Lampel and Meyer (2008, 1027), FCEs are distinguished by
several features:
(1) FCEs assemble in one location actors from diverse professional, organizational and
geographical backgrounds;
(2) FCEs’ duration is limited, normally running from a few hours to a few days;
(3) FCEs provide unstructured opportunities for face-to-face social interaction;
(4) FCEs include ceremonial and dramaturgical activities;
(5) FCEs are occasions for information exchange and collective sense-making;
(6) FCEs generate social and reputational resources that can be deployed elsewhere and
for other purposes.
These features help explain the social significance of FCEs. Since they bring together
many diverse actors from a particular field, they have representational capacities: they
can serve as a microcosm of the field, its structures and its dynamics. Since they foster inten-
sive social interaction, which typically has both instrumental and symbolic dimensions, they
constitute spaces of collective action and negotiation and may thus shape the field as well.
In other words, FCEs both reflect social fields and affect them (Lampel and Meyer 2008).
Furthermore, FCEs often display an intricate mixture of both closure and openness, both
conservatism and change: on the one hand, they are usually managed by particular
actors or authorities, which select FCE participants and plan FCE activities and programmes;
on the other hand, the diversity of participants and interactional intensity preclude com-
plete planning and control, and hence the competitions and negotiations taking place in
FCEs may yield unexpected transformations in the field. In a similar vein, anthropologist
Arjun Appadurai has described such events as “tournaments of value”, in which core
values in a society are represented, debated and negotiated. In his own words:
Tournaments of value are complex periodic events that are removed in some culturally
defined way from the routine of everyday economic life. Participation in them is likely to be
both a privilege for those in power and an instrument of status contests between them.
The currency of such tournaments is also likely to be set apart through well understood cul-
tural diacritics. Finally, what is at issue in such tournaments is not just status, rank, fame, or
reputation of actors, but the disposition of the central tokens of value in the society in ques-
tion. […] [T]hough such tournaments of value occur in special times and places, their forms
and outcomes are always consequential for the more mundane realities of power and value
in ordinary life. (Appadurai 1986, 21)10
In this article, I argue that the Cairo book fair is a major FCE in Egyptian society, which
has significance not only in the publishing field and in the cultural and economic fields at
4 I. SHAHAR
large, but also in the political field. In addition to commercial activities in connection with
the selling and buying of books, and hundreds of literary events, the fairground also hosts
dozens of public debates and lectures of a political nature. Through the Book Organization,
governmental authorities exercise considerable control over these debates: they decide
what issues will be discussed, in what order, and most importantly, who will be the discus-
sants. It is not surprising, therefore, that the central themes of the Book Fairs (the habit of
choosing a central theme for each annual fair was first introduced in 1989) revolve around
general, vague topics such as “One Hundred Years of Enlightenment” (1990), “We and the
World” (1996), “Islam and the West” (1998), “Egypt in a Changing World” (2003) and “The
Role of Religion in the Modern World” (2007).11
At the same time, governmental planning and control are not unlimited: the mass
attendance, diverse participants, intense social interaction, and the presence of inter-
national actors and media—all add an uncontrolled and unexpected element to the
Cairo book fair. This mass event thus constitutes a playing ground that is at least partly
open, where various political currents are brought together, where core political issues
are discussed and where the relationships between the government and diverse political
groups are not only mirrored but also shaped. By examining the Book Fair and the debates
surrounding it, we may thus gain a better understanding of the Egyptian political dis-
course and of the relationships between the Egyptian political authorities and oppositional
groups.
More specifically, I contend that under the Mubarak regime, the book fair served both
as an instrument of political control and as a site of political agency. From the viewpoint of
the governmental authorities, the Cairo book fair was one of the mechanisms whereby
political tensions with dissenting groups were acknowledged and yet contained—a
capacity that was crucial for the survival of the Mubarak regime for almost three
decades (Albrecht 2005, 2007). From the viewpoint of other political actors, the Book
Fair constituted a unique opportunity—albeit a partly censored and supervised one—to
present their positions and re-define the boundaries of “acceptable” political discourse
in Egypt.
To demonstrate this argument, the discussion below will focus on three political con-
troversies that were spurred by the Cairo book fair over the years, and that incited
heated debates in the Egyptian media and public sphere. The first debate took place in
the mid-1980s and concerned the participation of Israel in the Book Fair; the second
debate took place in the early 1990s and concerned the Islamization of the Egyptian
public sphere; and the third debate occurred in the mid-2000s and concerned “the
allowed and the forbidden” in Egyptian political discourse and the extent of governmental
censorship. As I will show, the political negotiations that surrounded the Book Fair in each
of these cases both represented the developments in the political field at the time and
shaped this field and the relationships within it.
The article builds on my own unmediated impressions from visits to the Cairo book fair
over the years, combined with a systematic review of media coverage of the fair and of
secondary academic sources. These sources are weaved together to produce an insti-
tutional history of the fair, reviewing significant transformations it underwent during
the four decades between 1969 and 2010. However, as noted above, the focus of this his-
torical review is on the fair’s role as a FCE in the Egyptian political field. A comprehensive
analysis of other aspects of the fair is beyond the scope of this article.
The structure of the article is as follows. The next section provides a brief overview of
the history of the Cairo book fair since its inception in 1969 and until 2010—its last year
under the Mubarak regime. The subsequent sections review the three major political
debates surrounding the Book Fair mentioned above. The conclusion provides a
summary of the findings and a discussion placing them in the context of the broader pol-
itical culture and political developments in Egypt under the Mubarak regime.
Cairo international Book Fair: a brief institutional history

As mentioned, the first Cairo book fair was held in 1969, in celebration of the millennial
anniversary of Cairo, and of the fiftieth anniversary of the anti-colonial revolution of
1919. The event took place just a year and a half after Egypt’s humiliating defeat in the
1967 war. The shaken Nasserist regime, which was desperately searching for means to
lift the spirits of the population, decided to mark the grandeur of Egypt and Cairo with
special celebrations (Farid 1994, 66).12 Various events were planned for the celebrations,
including an international book fair that would highlight Egyptian culture’s leading pos-
ition in the Arab world and in the international publishing industry. The powerful Minister
of Culture at the time, Dr Tharwat ʿUkasha, commissioned the Egyptian Book Organization
for Publishing and Distribution with the task of organizing the fair,13 which was initially
planned to be a one-time event. The Egyptian media hailed the event as a success and
reported that it had been received enthusiastically by the publishing industry as well as
by the general public (see, for example, al-Ahram, 4 February 1969, 2). In light of this
success, it was decided to turn the Cairo book fair into an annual event and an ongoing
tradition (al-Manshawi and Abu Zayd 2013).
The annual fairs in the subsequent decade were all held at the old international fair-
ground on the Jazeera (The Island).14 From the very beginning the fairs were opened
and attended by high-ranking officials such as government ministers and the First Lady,
Jihan Sadat, who opened the eleventh (1979) and thirteenth (1981) fairs. And yet
despite the presence of senior political figures, these fairs’ focus was clearly professional
and bounded to the concerns of the Egyptian publishing industry—its problems, its pro-
spects, and its place in the Arab and international book markets. Accordingly, new activi-
ties and initiatives that were introduced to the Cairo book fairs during this decade were
always directly related to the publishing industry. Thus, for example, the third Book Fair
(1972) introduced evening encounters with writers and poets; the eighth (1976) intro-
duced a children’s books wing (in cooperation with the International Book Fair in
Bologna); and the tenth (1978) hosted an exhibition of modern and old printing machines
(ibid).
During the 1980s and 1990s, the Cairo book fair underwent some noticeable transform-
ations. In 1984, the fair moved from its old location at the fairgrounds on the Jazeera to the
newly built international fairgrounds in Nasser City (Madīnat Nās r). In addition, three inter-
related processes took place. First, a process of politicization set in as early as 1981 (the
fourteenth Book Fair). This process began with a controversy over the participation of
Israel in the Cairo book fair—a controversy that will be examined more closely in the
next section. This political debate dominated the media coverage of the fair during the
1980s and marginalized issues related to the publishing industry and literary field.15 The
politicization of the Book Fairs during the 1980s was also evident in President Mubarak’s
6 I. SHAHAR
decision to open the fair in person. Mubarak attended the fair for the first time in 1983 and
continued to do so throughout his presidency.16 Moreover, in 1986 he introduced a “tra-
dition” of encounters between himself and a group of pre-chosen intellectuals (al-muthaq-
qafīn), which took place on the first day of the fair. This tradition appears to have been
highly valued by Mubarak, who sought to exemplify—through this practice—his open-
ness and attentiveness to the people (Mourad and Saad 2012). Another sign of the political
importance Mubarak ascribed to the Book Fair was that his son, Gamal—his would-be heir,
if his plans were to materialize—made his first appearance in public at the thirty-third fair,
in 2002 (al-Manshawi and Abu Zayd 2013).
A second development in the Cairo book fair beginning in the early 1980s was a con-
spicuous process of Islamization. In the fifteenth Book Fair (1982), the Ministry of Religious
Endowments (Wizarat al-Awqāf) participated for the first time actively in the fair and was
involved in organizing public events with religious figures. One year later, the sixteenth fair
saw for the first time the presentation and distribution of Islamic religious books in the
pavilions of official government publishing houses (ibid). Over the next decades, the
title list in the fair became increasingly Islamic (Starret 2010, 643)—reflecting both the pro-
liferation of private Islamic publishers participating in the fairs, and a shift in the policy of
government-owned publishing houses toward presenting Islamic titles. As a result, it
appears that the majority of books sold to visitors in the fairground (as opposed to trans-
actions among commercial agents) were Islamic books (Bayat 1998, 156).
The popular Islamic preacher ʿAmr Khālid made his first appearance at the thirty-second
Book Fair (2000).17 His lecture was preceded by intensive advertising, sponsored by the
Muslim Brothers (Mourad and Saad 2012). In subsequent years, Khālid returned to the
fair regularly, and his lectures attracted thousands of listeners. His preaching, recorded
on various types of media—cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs—was widely distributed
among the book fair visitors. Indeed, a report on the thirty-fourth Book Fair (2002)
describes the fair as “conspicuously Islamic” and notes that most of the female visitors
in the fair wear head scarves, and that the mosque in the fairgrounds is packed with wor-
shipers all day long.18 This observation is confirmed by an academic research into the
habits and attitudes of the fair’s visitors, which was conducted in 2003 (al-Baghdādī
2004), and it is also in line with my own impressions from my visits to the fair. As far as
I can tell, the gradual Islamization of the book fair has been evident not only in the title
list, but also in the visitors’ appearance and in the overall Islamic “atmosphere” of the
fairground.
Third and last, since the twentieth fair (1988), the Cairo book fairs have undergone a
marked process of commercialization and popularization. The 1988 fair was described
in the press as a huge cultural happening and celebration (mihrajān thaqafī haʾel).19
Indeed, the Book Organization officials introduced to this fair dozens of popular events
such as film screenings, theatre shows, art exhibitions and music events (al-Manshawi
and Abu Zayd 2013). Some high-brow critics expressed their reservations regarding this
process (see, for example, al-Ahalī, 10 February 1988, 16), but the Cairene crowd
responded enthusiastically and attended the fair in droves. The fair organizers must
have seen this as a success, as they institutionalized these marks of popularization and
commercialization in subsequent fairs. In addition, throughout the years they systemati-
cally introduced to the fair “crowd-magnet” activities such as a literary competition and
awards (first held in 1989) and colourful celebrations of the artistic accomplishments of
Egyptian icons such as Umm Kulthum and Nagīb Mah fūz . Since 1989, the Book Fairs orga-
nizers have also introduced the custom of choosing a central theme for each annual fair,
which helped broaden the topics discussed in the fair’s organized public debates. Later on,
in the 1990s, the Book Fair organizers also began inviting renowned foreign writers (for
example, the German writer Günter Grass in 1991) to the fair as “guests of honor”. In
the 2000s, they introduced the notion of a “country guest of honor” (for example, Portugal
was chosen for the thirty-seventh fair, Italy for the thirty-eighth).
We may conclude that since the 1980s and 1990s, the Cairo book fair has undergone
processes of politicization, Islamization and commercial popularization. These processes
went hand in hand, supporting one another and enhancing one another. Together,
they left their mark on the fair and turned it into a truly popular event that plays an impor-
tant role in the Egyptian calendar. Nevertheless, they also turned the fair into a battle-
ground of values and political agendas, propelled by governmental spokespersons and
by actors representing different ideological factions in Egyptian society, such as Islamists
and Liberals. As argued above, the Cairo book fair as a socio-political arena constitutes
both a microcosm of the Egyptian political field, reflecting certain actors and dynamics
in this field, and a space of action and agency, which contributes to the structuring of
this very field. The next sections illustrate this dialectic argument.
The debate over Israel’s participation in the Cairo book fair (1980s)
The Israeli–Egyptian Peace Treaty was concluded in Washington in March 1979, sixteen
months after the surprising visit of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat to Jerusalem.
Sadat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, signed the treaty on the lawn of
the White House. The American President, Jimmy Carter, added his signature as a
witness, endorsing the treaty and guaranteeing on behalf of the Unites States that it
will be implemented to the letter (Quandt 2005, 206). The main components of the
treaty were mutual recognition, cessation of the state of war between the two countries,
Israel’s withdrawal from all the Egyptian territory captured in the 1967 war, and normaliza-
tion of relations. This last aspect of the treaty was to arouse the most determined resist-
ance among the Egyptian public and among various political currents in the country
(Cohen 1990).
In fact, except for the ruling party, the National Democratic Party, which was associated
with President Sadat, all the other parties in the Egyptian Parliament expressed resent-
ment toward the peace treaty from the outset. The Socialist Labor Party (H izb al-ʿAmal)
and the National Progressive Unionist Party (al-Tagammuʿ)—a bloc of Marxists, Nasserists
and progressive Islamic forces—opposed the treaty because it had failed to guarantee
Palestinian rights and compromised Egypt’s sovereignty over the Sinai (Beinin 1985, 5).
The Muslim Brothers, a political movement that was banned from parliamentary politics
but exerted far-reaching influence in the Egyptian street, asserted, in unequivocal religious
terms, that no peace is possible as long as Jerusalem remains occupied (ibid).
Opposition became even more pronounced after full diplomatic relations between the
two states had been established, and after the embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv had opened
on 25 February 1980. Public opinion, incited by the media, was mobilized against the
acceptance of official Israeli presence in the Egyptian public sphere. Demonstrations
were held in front of the Israeli embassy on a daily basis; and in November, an official
8 I. SHAHAR
visit of the Israeli President, Yitzhak Navon, spurred a storm of protests in the streets
(Dowek 2001, 136–139). Two months later, in January 1981, the organizers of the book
fair announced that they had refused an Israeli request to participate in the fair, on
account that the application had been submitted too late and could not be processed.
The Israeli embassy in Egypt, in collaboration with the US embassy, pressured the Egyptian
government and Book Organization to reverse this decision. The pressure bore fruit, and
Israel was given a stand at the International Pavilion (Harlow 1986, 54). The Israeli booth
was located next to the exhibit of the Palestinian children’s publishing house (Dār al-
Fatāt al-ʿArabī), and this proximity again stirred widespread popular protest against the
Israeli presence (Beinin 1985, 5). When the Israeli ambassador arrived to inaugurate the
Israeli booth, Israeli security agents tried to obscure the neighbouring Palestinian flag,
so that the ambassador would not be photographed in front of it. This led to some
skirmishes, which ended with several protestors lightly wounded and with several
arrests of Egyptian activists (ibid).
Following this incident, the Israeli booth was transferred to a different location, but the
protest persisted. Later in the week there was a spontaneous demonstration against the
Israeli exhibit, after al-Tagammuʿ members had distributed leaflets and small Palestinian
flags in front of the Israeli booth. These events were covered extensively by the Egyptian
media, which generally expressed—even in governmental mouthpieces such as al-Ahram
—resentment toward Israel and support of the popular protest against it.20
Following Israeli and American pressure, the turmoil at the 1981 fair led to the exclusion
of the Palestinian delegation from the fourteenth fair in 1982 (Harlow 1986, 55). Israel did not
participate formally in that book fair, although Israeli books were presented by some Egyp-
tian sellers (al-Manshawi and Abu Zayd 2013). The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and
the massacre at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in September 1982 kept both the Israeli
and the Palestinian delegations out of the fifteenth and sixteenth fairs. However, both an
Israeli delegation and Palestinian representatives were officially invited to participate in
the seventeenth fair (1985). The renewed Israeli presence enticed again a deluge of
popular protest, supported, this time, by intellectuals and publishers not only from Egypt
but from the entire Arab world. Under this growing pressure, The Book Organization’s
administrators decided to put some limits on the presence of the Israeli delegation in the
fair: Israelis were allowed to exhibit only during the first three days of the fair, when the pavi-
lions had not yet been opened to the general public (Harlow 1986, 56), and some restrictions
were also placed on the presentation of flags in the fairgrounds. Nevertheless, when the
Israeli booth remained open for five additional days, beyond what had been agreed
upon, popular demonstrations disrupted the fair. In response to the brutal treatment of pro-
testers by the Egyptian police, some Arab and Egyptian publishers collaborated in boycot-
ting the fair and mounting an alternative exhibition. This move was accompanied by a press
conference and by public round-table discussions—which were held in the fairgrounds—
attended by publishers, writers, poets and other prominent members of the intelligentsia
(ibid, 57). The event was widely covered by Egyptian and Arab media (see, for example,
al-Akhbār, 8 February 1985, 3; al-Bayān [Qatar], 10 February 1985, 12).
After the bombing of the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis, Israel
was not invited to participate in the 1986 fair, nor was it invited to participate in the sub-
sequent fairs. Israeli publishers continued to be involved in the fairs through represen-
tation agreements with Egyptian publishers, and Israeli buyers continued to browse the
fairs in search of bargains, but Israel was no longer allowed to present an official booth.21
The issue of Israel’s presence in the book fairs kept emerging in the Egyptian media every
now and then. For example, in a public debate that I myself attended during the twenty-
eighth fair in 1996, the revered movie and theatre star ʿAdel Imam stated that in his
opinion, “Egyptians’ attitude toward Israel is a case of schizophrenia: at the political
level the relations are good, but at the cultural level, we [i.e. Egyptian cultural circles]
refuse to maintain any kind of relations with Israelis” (also quoted in al-Ahram, 4 March
1996, 4). Imam thus called upon his fellow artists and intellectuals to come to terms, at
last, with Israel’s existence in the Middle East and to start getting familiar with their
Israeli neighbours. This statement triggered a wave of angry responses, first by the audi-
ence and the other participants in the debate, and later by the press. Twenty-four hours
later, Imam was forced to announce that he had been misunderstood, and that he had
not called, by any means, for normalization (tatbiʿ al-ʿalaqat) of the relations with
Israel.22 A few years later, in 1999 (the thirty-first fair), the Book Organization publically
announced that it had denied, again, an Israeli application to participate in the Cairo
book fair. The announcement was cheered by the Egyptian media.23
The stream of events presented here demonstrates that the Cairo book fair—as a major
FCE in Egyptian society—became an important arena for negotiating Egypt’s attitude
toward Israel and for agreeing on “acceptable” arrangements in this regard. The peace
treaty with Israel was a political agreement signed by the political leadership of the
country. Nevertheless, public opinion was generally critical of this treaty, and the presence
of Israeli official representatives in the book fair brought this criticism to the surface. As we
have seen, the Book Organization—as an arm of the Egyptian government—controlled
the fair, managed it and selected its participants. However, its control was not unlimited.
Initially, the Book Organization was reluctant to grant Israel official authorization to partici-
pate in the fair, but external forces—the Israeli and the US governments—pressured it to
accept Israeli official presence at the fair. This decision was challenged, in turn, by actors
inside the Egyptian political field: political parties, intellectuals, journalists and street pro-
testers. It took several years of negotiations, of moves and counter-moves, for an arrange-
ment to be reached: Israel would not be allowed to participate in the book fairs officially,
but unofficial Israeli representatives would be welcome.
To conclude my argument here: the debate surrounding Israel’s participation in the
book fairs was more than a mere reflection of prevailing attitudes toward Israel in the
Egyptian public and Egyptian political field. Rather, the Cairo book fair as a FCE constituted
an arena of political agency, where various actors—government officials, opposition repre-
sentatives, intellectuals, the media and the general Egyptian public—voiced and nego-
tiated their respective positions and values. The outcome of these negotiations—a
modus vivendi of tolerance toward unofficial presence of Israeli representatives in the
fair—was later extended to other public arenas as well.24
The Cairo book fair as a battleground between Islamists and Liberals

(1990s and 2000s)
The early 1990s witnessed a rise in the tension between Islamists and Liberals in Egypt
(Hatina 2007). In this case, too, the book fair both reflected the tension and served as
an arena where different actors negotiated their respective positions and values.
10 I. SHAHAR
Furthermore, the book fair constituted a sort of “testing ground”, where the government’s
position toward Islamists and Liberals and toward their demands was formed and
implemented.
The first direct confrontation between Islamists and Liberals in the context of the Cairo
book fair occurred in the twenty-second fair (1990). Several days after the opening of the
fair, a controversy was sparked when a book by the liberal journalist and thinker Farag
Foda was removed from circulation and withdrawn from the book stalls (al-Ahram, 1 Feb-
ruary 1990, 3).25 This was done after a complaint had been made by al-Azhar authorities,
accusing Foda of incitement against Shaykh al-Azhar (Flores 1997, 87). Two years later,
during the twenty-fourth fair, a self-appointed committee from al-Azhar’s Islamic Research
Academy (IRA) confiscated from a stand five books by Judge Saʿīd al-ʿAshmāwī, a promi-
nent Islamic scholar and writer. Several days afterwards, the committee confiscated two
additional books by other authors. Al-ʿAshmāwī was apparently targeted by al-Azhar scho-
lars because he has been criticizing—both in his writings and in his judicial verdicts—the
Research Academy’s right to censure music, books, films and theatre shows. The confis-
cated books remained off the displays for several days, until a presidential decree by Pre-
sident Mubarak reinstalled them (Shepard 1996, 42–43. See also, Reed 1993, 101).
Concomitantly with the controversy surrounding Judge ʿAshmāwī’s books, the book fair
hosted a major public debate between Islamist and liberal representatives. Titled “Egypt
between Religious and Civil State”, the debate featured five prominent speakers: the
liberal side was represented by Farag Foda, who has been mentioned above, and by Dr
Muh ammad Khalāfallah, one of the leaders of the Tagammuʿ party; and the Islamist side
was represented by Muh ammad ʿAmāra, an Islamist author, Muh ammad al-Ghazālī, a
senior al-Azhar Shaykh and Maʾmūn al-Hudaybī, a senior leader of the Muslim Brothers
who later became the movement’s General Guide. The debate was held in front of an audi-
ence of thousands of people and was apparently so intense that several months later, al-
Azhar Council issued a fatwa accusing Foda of blasphemy due to his statements in the
debate (Flores 1997, 87). Five days later, two members of the Islamist militant group al-
Gamaʿa al-Islamiyya entered Foda’s office and shot him dead. His son and a bystander
were seriously injured in the attack (Soage 2007).
The assassination shocked the Egyptian public and brought about a governmental
crackdown on al-Gamaʿa al-Islamiyya. Nevertheless, at the trial of the two assassins,
senior Islamists insisted that in light of Foda’s utterances during the debate held in the
book fair, there was no alternative to declaring him an apostate. Shaykh al-Ghazālī and
al-Hudaybi—both of whom participated in the debate with Foda at the book fair—testi-
fied in the trial that it was the government’s duty to execute those who are declared apos-
tates of Islam; if the government does not fulfil this obligation, then others have the right
to carry out the sentence (Moustafa 2000, 14; see also Hatina 2007, 68–70). As noted by
Alrawi, although the debate at the book fair was filmed, it has never been broadcasted.
In his view, this is an indication of the Islamic lobby’s influence on government media
(Alrawi 1992, 19; quoted in Abu-Lughod 1993, 26).
Debates between Islamists and Liberals about the place of religion in the Egyptian public
sphere continued to unfold in subsequent fairs, although, as noted by al-Shaʿb (8 February
1998, 8), liberal speakers were “measuring their words” following the Farag Foda case.
Several years later, in 2001, the thirty-third fair was opened amidst controversy: a few
days before the fair’s opening, the government had sacked several high-ranking officials
in the Book Organization on account of their “impaired judgement that caused damage to
public morality” (al-Akhbār, 20 January 2001, 6). The sacking occurred after a MP from the
Muslim Brothers had complained about the publication, by the Book Organization, of three
books that contained, according to this MP, “explicitly indecent material amounting to por-
nography” (al-Ahram Weekly, 25 January 2001; quoted in Mehrez 2001, 10).
In response to this harsh governmental measure, a group of intellectuals issued a public
statement titled “Against Oppression and Censorship”, in which they vigorously attacked
the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, who was responsible for dismissing the Book Organ-
ization officials, and threatened to boycott the cultural activities at the book fair unless the
dismissal was reversed (Mehrez 2001, 11). President Mubarak, however, was apparently
not too impressed by these threats. In his annual meeting with intellectuals on the first
day of the book fair (24 January), he backed his Minister of Culture, declaring that there
is no censorship in Egypt, and that while he encourages intellectual freedom, “writers
should also keep in mind ‘traditions, morality and religious considerations’” (Mehrez
2001, 12, quoting al-Ahram Weekly, 25 January 2001). Mehrez notes that following Mubar-
ak’s unequivocal statement, “the cheerleaders of public morality pillaged the book fair,
confiscating books they deemed inappropriate” (ibid).
Indeed, the following years saw a growing number of titles that were apparently
banned from the fair’s stalls. In the thirty-fourth fair (2002) three books by feminist
writer Nawal al-Saʿdawi and the Diwān of the famous eighth-century poet Abū Nawās
were banned from the fair, under the pretext that these books constitute “an insult
against religion” (Haaretz, 2 February 2005). Interestingly, both these authors’ books
were presented and sold in past years at previous book fairs. Two years later, at the
thirty-sixth fair (2004), books by Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and
Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek), which were translated to Arabic by the Lebanese pub-
lishing house Dār al-Adāb, were detained, for some obscure reason, by the Egyptian
Customs Authorities, and thus remained outside the book fair (ibid).
In 2005 (the thirty-seventh fair) the issue of formal and informal censorship came to the
fore when Egyptian and international publishers demanded a clear and unequivocal expla-
nation from the Book Organization officials as to the “habit of disappearance” of certain
titles from book shipments. As noted by a representative of one publishing house,
[t]he problem is [that] neither I, as culture editor, nor the publishers can say who is behind
these seizures. Was it security officials? Or perhaps the Ministry of Information? The books
are simply missing from the shipments, and the publisher does not receive any notification
about the retained goods. (Quoted in Nagar 2005)
In the following years, the discourse about censorship in the book fair seems to have sub-
sided. Perhaps censorship was indeed lightened up a bit, or alternatively, publishers
learned their lesson and avoided the presentation of “problematic” books that might be
deemed controversial.
In any case, the incidents reviewed here indicate that during the 1990s and early 2000s,
the Cairo book fair served as one of the primary arenas where the struggle between Isla-
mists and Liberals in Egypt unfolded. During these decades, Egyptian society underwent a
conspicuous process of Islamization (Bayat 1998, 2007), and this was clearly reflected in the
book fair, which gradually became more Islamic in nature. Indeed, Bayat described this
Islamization process in Egypt as a Gramcian “passive revolution”—that is, a systematic,
12 I. SHAHAR
gradual process by which a movement strives to dominate a particular society by seizing

moral and intellectual leadership positions in its civil institutions and processes (see Bayat
1998, 141, 2007, 136–180).
This passive revolution took place right “under the nose” of the regime, which preferred
not to intervene actively in the power struggles between Islamists and Liberals. As we have
seen, Islamists exerted growing pressure on the government in general, and on the Book
Organization in particular, making use of the somewhat obscure authority of the IRA for
the purpose of “cleansing” the public sphere of the Cairo book fair of “inappropriate”
books. The government responded to this pressure in a rather erratic and inconsistent
manner—certain titles were banned from the fair, whereas other titles, which were by
no means “less problematic”, remained on display.
It appears, however, that except for a single occasion—the re-installment of ʿAshmawī’s
books by a presidential decree—the government preferred, in general, not to intervene, or
alternatively to back up Islamists’ demands. In this sense, the Cairo book fair constituted
not only a “tournament of values” (Appadurai 1986) between Islamists and Liberals, but
also a space of governmental action (or inaction), in which the government played the
role of a third party regulating the rules of the game (Mehrez 2001). In retrospect, it
seems that during the 1990s and early 2000s, this regulator was acting in a rather
passive manner, allowing the parties (that is, Islamists and liberals) to wrestle in “catch
as catch can” style. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the growing dominance of
Islamists in the book fairs throughout the 1990s reflects their increasing influence in the
Egyptian public sphere during that period.26
Cairo book fair as a platform for challenging President Mubarak’s rule

(mid-2000s)
As a sphere of socio-political action, where the relations between the Egyptian regime and
various ideological factions within Egyptian society is negotiated and structured, the Cairo
book fair has witnessed over the years numerous clashes and tensions between the intel-
lectuals (al-muthaqafin) and the government. Given the obvious danger inherent in the
book fair as a relatively open arena of socio-political agency, it is not surprising that the
government took steps to limit this danger and to exert control over things said and
done in the fairs. Surly, the most effective way to exert such control was to select,
monitor and supervise the speakers invited to participate in the fairs. This monitoring
was evident in all the activities of the fair, but was enforced with special zest in the “tra-
ditional” encounters between President Mubarak and the intellectuals, which took place
on the first day of the fair. As stressed by Prof. Ahmad Zayed, a sociologist from Cairo
University,
[T]he fair played a vital role in entrenching the regime figures among intellectual elites. […] It
was a good chance for the regime to present certain names through seminars, ranging from
politicians, media stars to intellectuals. That is why the fair did not present new blood to the
Egyptian cultural body [… .] the fair was a machine to reproduce the regime with slanted, pro-
regime publications. (Interviewed and quoted Mourad and Saad 2012)27
And yet, reviewing the development of the book fair from the 1990s until the Arab Spring,
it seems that Prof. Zayed may have overestimated the government’s ability to exert full
control over the list of speakers and to intercept potential embarrassments. For example,
during his lecture in the twenty-fifth fair (1993), the Minister of Interior, General ʿAbd al-
Halīm Musā, was challenged by a young Coptic student who raised the issue of govern-
mental restrictions on the construction of churches and monasteries. The event was
described in a report issued by a human rights organization:
Aiman [the mentioned student] attended the Book Fair seminar with his father and brother.
He submitted a written question to the Interior Minister about the closure of churches, with
full knowledge that the issue was politically sensitive. “The moderator of the seminar panel
did not ask the question the way I wrote it”, Aiman said. “I had asked why our church had
been closed five years ago, and wrote down its name and address. But the moderator only
asked the minister if he was against churches, and the minister said that of course he was
not. So I stood up and told the minister that his answer was wrong, and I gave the
example of our church”. The Interior Minister rebuffed Aiman by asking if the church had a
permit from the authorities. The priest’s son had to concede that it did not. (Human Rights
Watch 1994, 17)28
An embarrassment of a larger scale occurred in the twenty-seventh fair (1995), when in a

keynote lecture, the famous leftist and Nasserist thinker Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal
linked the country’s socio-economic problems to its political stagnation—thus expressing
direct criticism of President Mubarak’s policy (see a report on Haykal’s speech in Ruz al-
Yusuf, 16 January 1995, 2; al-Akhbār, 16 January 1995, 6). In this case, the regime’s response
was quite harsh: Haykal was “banned” from book fairs during the second half of the
1990s.29
The cases of the Coptic student in 1993 and of Haykal in 1995 illustrate that despite the
governmental monitoring and control, members of the public and of the intelligentsia did
enjoy some degrees of freedom in the book fair. Indeed, criticism of the regime or its
representatives was usually followed by attempts by the book fair organizers “to put
the offender in his place”. The Coptic student was questioned by a security officer after
his altercation with the Minister of Interior Affairs (see Human Rights Watch 1994), and
Haykal was banned from future fairs. And yet, it is clear that during the 1990s the book
fair came to constitute a significant public sphere for challenging the regime. If anything,
despite the government’s sincere efforts, the use of the fair as a platform for displaying
political agency appears to have increased over the years, not diminished. This enabling
feature of the fairs became even more prominent in the 2000s.
The thirty-fifth fair (2003), for example, was overshadowed by wide and poignant
protest against the coming Second Gulf War. Egypt was not an official member of the
coalition, but Mubarak’s regime backed the Bush administration and provided it with
much-needed legitimacy within the Arab world. Large segments of the Egyptian public,
however, opposed the pending war vigorously (Schemm 2003). Anticipating the proble-
matic outcome of an open debate about the war, the book fair organizers announced
—on the opening day of the fair—the cancellation of a panel that was supposed to
discuss the situation in Iraq and its ramifications for Egypt (see al-Shaʿb, 23 January
2003, 8). Nevertheless, the public and the intellectuals were not inclined to forgo an oppor-
tunity to challenge the government: several speakers in other debates insisted on raising
the issue. To mention just one example: Youssef Chahine, Egypt’s greatest film director,
used his participation in a seminar on the future of Egyptian cinema to warn against
the war and against the pending murder of a quarter of a million Arabs (Baker 1995,
14 I. SHAHAR
29). Other activists and opposition leaders organized extensive anti-war demonstrations in
the fairgrounds (El-Ghobashy 2003, 29).
The following fairs of the mid-2000s were no less turbulent. An incident occurred
during the thirty-seventh fair (2005), when a police force broke into the fairgrounds
and arrested an opposition activist—a journalist working for the socialist newspaper
al-ʿAlam al-Youm—who was accused of circulating “anti-government propaganda”.
Two other activists were arrested as well, and some printed material was confiscated
(El-Ghobashy 2005). The International Federation of Journalists issued a sharp condem-
nation of the Egyptian government’s intimidation and bullying tactics against opposition
writers and journalists and called for the immediate release of the journalist (IFJ Press
release, 8 February 2005).
The thirty-seventh fair was also noted for the conspicuous presence of Kifāya activists,
who strolled around the fairgrounds with yellow stickers taped on their mouths.30 The
police and other security agents were agitated by this “spiteful” behaviour and con-
fronted Kifāya activists on several occasions (Mourad and Saad 2012). However, the
most dramatic confrontation between a Kifāya activist and a spokesperson of the govern-
ment involved no other than the president himself. Prof. Muh ammad al-Sayd Saʿīd—a
prominent political scientist from Cairo University and a Kifāya member—was perempto-
rily removed from the fair’s panel discussions after confronting Mubarak on political and
human rights matters. Saʿīd had the audacity to challenge the President at the traditional
closed meeting between Mubarak and a group of intellectuals on the opening day of the
fair (El-Ghobashy 2005). In an obituary to Prof. Saʿīd, who passed away in October 2009,
the authors give an account of the incident: refusing to accept the forum’s usual defer-
ence toward Mubarak, Saʿīd stood up and “implored the president to redress human
rights violations in the Sinai, corruption in government ministries, and the quotidian
degradation of Egyptian citizens”. Thanks to Saʿīd’s intercession, they conclude, “the
forum transformed from a ritualistic homage into a moment of exposure and forced
introspection, whose effects were too potent for the president to ignore” (Brownlee
and Stacher 2010, 48).
This account exemplifies the kind of bold, direct criticism that Mubarak had to deal with
during his last years in office. These were the years of Kifāya, of “April 6”, and of “We are all
Khalid Saʿīd”,31 and Mubarak was facing targeted de-legitimization of his presidency. As we
have seen, the Cairo book fair—here more than ever—constituted a focal point of nego-
tiation between the regime and the opposition: it was in this setting that the intellectual
elite could meet face-to-face with Mubarak and discuss with him, in a relatively open
fashion, the various opposing visions for Egypt. In the mid-2000s, so it seems, for many
of the intellectuals this vision did not include the Mubarak regime.
Perceiving this public sentiment with his sharp political senses, Mubarak made despe-
rate attempts to convince his critics that he does have answers, and that he can still
provide a solution to Egypt’s predicaments. It is not surprising, perhaps, that it was in
the annual meeting with the intellectuals in the thirty-eighth fair—a year after the incident
with Prof. Saʿid—that the battered and bruised Mubarak found an opportunity to reassure
the intellectuals that he is committed to reform. Mubarak outlined his plans for reforms,
insisting, however, that “it may only be done gradually, in small steps” (al-Ahram, 25
January 2006, 2. See also a report on Mubarak’s speech in MEJ Chronology, 16 January–
15 April 2006, 473). Unfortunately for Mubarak, it appears that the many of the Egyptian
people had no patience for such small steps—they were seeking a much swifter
transformation.
Conclusion
As we have seen, under the Mubarak regime the Cairo book fair developed into a highly
ritualized and institutionalized mega-event: it was popular; it was big and diverse; it com-
bined commercial, cultural, religious and political aspects; it juxtaposed “high” and “low”
cultures; it addressed Egyptian, Arab and international audiences; and it was closely
covered by Egyptian, Arab and international media. In a way, the book fair grew so
much in importance that the regime could no longer curtail it with ease. In public
opinion, as well as in the eyes of the regime, the book fair became “the face of Egypt”
toward the world, and the government was very careful not to blemish this face with
overtly harsh censorship and explicitly delimiting policies.
These features of the Cairo book fair turned it into a FCE, which played a pivotal role not
only in the commercial and cultural fields in Egypt but also in the political field, and
especially in the negotiations and value struggles between the regime and various
social and political groups in Egyptian society. As illustrated in the previous sections,
key issues that preoccupied the political discourse in Egypt were discussed and negotiated
at the Cairo book fair. In the 1980s it was the issue of Israel’s presence in the fairs—and
more generally, in the Egyptian public sphere at large—that was debated. As we have
seen, the outcome of this debate was a modus vivendi, or informal settlement, between
the regime and the major political movements in Egypt, according to which the Israeli–
Egyptian peace treaty is to be retained, but the public presence of Israeli representatives
in Egypt should be reduced to a minimum and the relations with Israel should not be nor-
malized (Cohen 1990; Albrecht 2005).
By the 1990s the attitude toward Israel had already been settled, and the focus of public
attention in the Cairo book fair shifted to the titanic struggle between Islamists and Liber-
als. These two opposing currents in Egyptian society turned the book fair into a major bat-
tleground over the “spirit of Egypt”. Again, the Cairo book fair as a FCE both mirrored the
growing power of Islamists and contributed to this trend. As demonstrated by the events
in the book fairs, the Mubarak regime chose to sit on the fence—a strategy that in practical
terms provided backing to the Islamists (Guirguis 2012). In retrospect, the Islamization of
the fairs during the 1990s and the 2000s, and the regime’s response to it, shed light on the
advantageous position that the Islamists enjoyed following the collapse of the Mubarak
regime.
Lastly, the fairs that took place in the late 2000s reflected and reinforced the growing
legitimacy crisis of the Mubarak regime—a crisis that ultimately led to its demise in the
2011 revolution. The awkward annual encounters between the regime’s spokespersons
and civil society opposition activists in the book fairs in the late 2000s demonstrated pub-
lically that the regime was “unable to deliver” (Wardany 2012) and unable to convince its
multiplying critics that it is more than a failed regime, which must be overthrown if Egypt is
to ever overcome its chronic problems. The regime’s inability to convince the book fair
audiences that it can provide solutions to Egypt’s predicaments was very conspicuous
in the late 2000s. In this sense, the fairs have not only reflected the buildup toward the
January 2011 revolution, but also contributed to this buildup.
16 I. SHAHAR
The findings of this research demonstrate the utility of studying the Cairo book fair as a
FCE, and of studying FCEs in the Middle East and elsewhere. As microcosms reflecting cul-
tural, economic and/or political fields, FCEs constitute useful prisms for studying these
fields. They may shed light on the structures and dynamics of these fields, and on core
conflicts and value contests within them. In our case, the Cairo book fair has served as a
prism for examining a series of core struggles and conflicting values that have shaped
the Egyptian public discourse. Furthermore, the Cairo book fair has served as a prism
for examining the changing relations between the Egyptian political regime and various
opposition groups in the country. The analysis has shown that Mubarak’s regime used
the book fair as an instrument for acknowledging and yet also containing political tensions
and dissenting groups—a strategy typical of this regime and of some other authoritarian
regimes in the area (Albrecht 2005, 2007).
On the face of it, the Mubarak regime used the book fairs as a “safety valve” for airing
public dissent yet ultimately restraining it. The use of “safety valve” mechanisms—such as
“safety valve elections” (Buehler 2013)—has often been attributed to authoritarian
regimes in the modern Middle East (see also Noland 2005). And yet the safety valve
theory has also been criticized for its functionalist assumptions (for example, Scott 1990,
178–182): it assumes that the outcome of such “airing” measures is pre-determined,
that the dissent is necessarily pacified and that the regime is necessarily fortified. The
analysis of the Cairo book fair in this paper—and the study of FCEs more broadly—
shows that the safety valve metaphor is indeed inaccurate. It is more accurate to concep-
tualize the function of the Cairo book fair in the Egyptian political field—not as a safety
valve, but rather as a playing ground, where both the regime and its opponents have
an opportunity to display their agency and negotiate their respective positions. Although
the power relations are unequal, and the regime is usually better positioned, the outcomes
of the game are not determined in advance. Rather, the political modus vivendi is struc-
tured and re-structured over the years—and from FCE to FCE—through ongoing struggles
and compromises. The study of FCEs can thus serve as an excellent prism for examining
these ongoing political dynamics and political transformations over the years.
In light of the turbulent events in Egypt since the fall of Mubarak’s regime, it would be
interesting to see what form the Cairo book fair will take in the next few years. It appears
that under the short presidency of Muhammad Mursī, the fair returned to its initial narrow
professional character, focusing on the publishing industry at the expense of its political
importance. Mursī—perhaps feeling no need, at the time, to negotiate with the intellectual
elite—publically announced that he will not meet with intellectuals at the book fair (Ahram
Online, 22 January 2013). Interestingly, some critiques viewed this decision not only as a
move that “closes the doors of dialogue” in Egyptian society, but also as a move that
may undermine the importance of the book fair itself (ibid).
In contrast, ʿAdlī Mans ūr, the temporary president who held office after Mursī’s depo-
sition by the army, inaugurated the forty-fifth fair in January 2014. ʿAbd al-Fatāh al-Sīsī,
who was elected to presidency later that year, chose to absent himself from the forty-
sixth and forty-seventh fairs (2015, 2016), which were opened by Egypt’s Prime Minister
and Minister of Culture. These two fairs attracted much media attention and were appar-
ently successful in terms of the sheer number of publishers and visitors attending them, if
not in terms of sales.32 However, it appears that these fairs’ political significance was some-
what reduced (see al-Aref, 6 February 2016).
One noteworthy development in the forty-sixth and forty-seventh fairs was that censor-
ship in these fairs was no longer limited to liberal or feminist authors, but rather was
applied to “controversial” Islamist writers as well. Youm al-Sabaʿ Internet portal reported
that in the forty-seventh fair (2016), several books by the famous Islamist author
Muh ammad al-Qarad āwī and books by Sayyīd Qutub were also banned, in addition to
books by Moroccan author Muh ammad Shukrī and Lebanese writer Hanā al-Sheikh—
that were banned because they “deal with issues of sexuality and legitimize homosexuality
in the Arab world”.33 It is too early to determine whether this policy represents a substan-
tial, long-term change in governmental authorities’ attitude toward Islamist thinkers, but
given the tension between the Sīsī regime and the Muslim Brothers, this may be a reason-
able assumption.
Indeed, it will be interesting to see whether Sīsī’s authoritarian regime (Springborg
2015) will follow the Mubarak regime in its handling of the Cairo book fair. Will it maintain
its passive regulatory role, or will it embrace a more active policy? Will it revive the political
function of the book fair as a meeting place between the regime’s spokespersons and
Egyptian intelligentsia, or will it find other venues—if at all—for this purpose? Further-
more: will it retain its FCE characteristics, that is, its significance as a social, cultural and
political arena for negotiating the future of Egypt? Only time will tell.
Notes
1. This description is based on ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in the twenty-eighth fair,
1996. For similar descriptions that highlight the diversity of activities at the book fair, its
mass attendance and its lively ambiance, see, for example, Albin (1983), Mehrez (2001), Wass-
mann (2008) and Naaman (2010, 446). In addition, dozens of similar references to the Cairo
book fair may be found in popular websites, such as Touregypt.net (http://www.touregypt.
net/featurestories/bookfair.htm) and al-Ahram weekly (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/
830/cu6.htm).
2. This agency was established by a presidential decree (no. 1813), issued by President Nasser in
1961. At the time of its establishment it was called “The General Authority for News, Publish-
ing, Distribution and Printing”. The name and the delineation of its task were changed several
times, until it received its current name—GEBO—in 1994. In the Egyptian media it is known,
however, as “The Book Organization”. For a detailed account of its history, see its official
website: http://www.gebo.gov.eg/.
3. For further information, see the very informative website of the Cairo book fair: http://www.
cairobookfair.org
4. Cairo was established by the Fatimids in 969.
5. On the uprising and its importance in the Egyptian national imagination, see Goldberg (1992).
6. Although Egyptian media are preoccupied with the “statistics of the fair”—for example, the
number of publishers participating in it, the number of countries represented by them, the
number of visitors attending the fair and so on—it is very difficult to obtain reliable figures.
The Book Organization website does provide some information, but it is partial and vague.
For example, the website presents a graph showing a gradual and impressive increase in
the number of publishers participating in the Cairo book fairs from 1982 to 2004 (from 130
publishers in 1982 to 3150 in 2004). However, the graph also indicates a dramatic drop in
the number of participating publishers in 2005 and in the subsequent years, to the range
of 500–600 publishers. This drop is a mystery, as it cannot be explained as an outcome of
apparent political, economic or organizational processes. It is therefore reasonable to
assume that the method of compiling the statistical data, for example, the criteria for assessing
who counts as a publisher, were somehow altered (for the Book Organization graph and for a
18 I. SHAHAR
discussion of this issue, see CAIROBOOKSTOP – a website dedicated to finding books in Cairo:
http://cairobookstop.wordpress.com/find-a-book-in-cairo/cairo-international-book-fair/).
7. The huge significance of the fair for the Egyptian book industry is partly explained by the
weakness of the book distribution systems in Egypt, and in the Arab world at large (See
Abou Zeid 2013; Helle 2016). Given the dearth of distribution channels, publishers in Egypt
are especially dependent on the fair for selling their books and for initiating partnerships
with publishers, distributors and agents in other Arab countries (Zeid 2013). It appears that
small publishing houses, whose distribution systems are particularly limited, are the ones
most dependent on the fair. For small publishers such as al-H ad āra Publishing or Dār al-
ʿAyn li’l-Nashr, the income from book sales during the days of the fair may constitute up to
70% of their annual revenue. See http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/18/11047/
Books/Egypts-publishing-industry-between-suffering-and-h.aspx.
8. See, for example, al-Shaʿb, 26 January 1992, 8, and al-Ahalī, 6 March 1996, 2—two oppositional
newspapers that lament the so-called deterioration of the book fairs that were held in
1992 and 1996; in contrast, government-affiliated newspapers such as al-Ahram, 25
January 1992, 1, and al-Akhbār, 26 February 1996, 4 – celebrate the success of these very
same fairs.
9. The fair’s role in the Egyptian book industry, as well as its role in the cultural field, for example,
in the field of Arabic literature, are beyond the scope of this article. I plan to deal with these
issues elsewhere.
10. It is interesting to compare FCEs with national and religious holidays. While both holidays and
FCEs have ritual and dramaturgical elements, holidays are much more scripted and leave
much less room to open-ended negotiation and contestation. Consequently, political auth-
orities can easily use national holidays as a political tool in processes of state-building and
nationalist indoctrination (see, e.g. Kertzer 1988). In the context of the modern Middle East,
Podeh (2011) has recently shown how twentieth-century Arab regimes have devised elaborate
national holidays for the purpose of developing national identity, consolidating collective
memory, and achieving political legitimacy (see also Wedeen 1999). While state-sponsored
FCEs, too, may serve such purposes, they are less ritualized than holidays and allow more
room for negotiation of both cultural and political values.
11. The repetition of themes, speakers and debates was criticized, occasionally, in the Egyptian
media (see, e.g. al-ʿArabī, 4 March 1996, 2; al-Shaʿb, 5 February 2002, 11). It should be
noted, however, that despite this repetition, close analysis of the fair’s central themes
throughout the years does reveal some transformations. This issue is beyond the scope of
this article.
12. See also the official publication: Cairo a Life-Story of 1000 Years 969–1969, and al-Ahram’s cel-
ebrative volume on the 1919 revolution: Khamsīn ʿawm ʿalā thawrat 1919 (with an introduction
by Muh ammad H asanayn Haykal).
13. As mentioned, in 1994, the name of this agency was changed to “General Egyptian Book
Organization” (GEBO).
14. The new Egyptian Opera House was built in the location of that fairground in 1988, after a new
international fairground had been built in Madīnat Nās r (see below).
15. A review of references to the Cairo book fair in leading Egyptian newspapers (al-Ahram, al-
Ahalī, al-Akhbār, al-Shaʿb) reveals that in the years 1981–1986, more than 60% of the refer-
ences were related to the Israel debate.
16. Mubarak was absent only from a handful of fairs (e.g. in the years 1984, 1985, 2004 and 2009),
and whenever this happened, the officiating Prime Minister attended instead.
17. About ʿAmr Khālid, an accountant who became a popular preacher, see Bayat (2007, 149–
155).
18. See, http://www.islamweb.net/ramadan/index.php?page=article&lang=A&id=8024. See also
Bayat (2007, 147). According to his sample, which included 466 female visitors to the 2001
fair, 80% of the attending women were wearing h ijābs.
19. See al-Ahram, 5 February 1988, 7.
20. See, for example, al-Ahram, 3 February 1981, 1; al-Ahalī, 5 February 1981, 4. For a
detailed account of the events surrounding the Israeli presence at the thirteenth fair, see
Anis (1985).
21. See, for example, Har’even (1996), who reports about the massive presence of Israeli students
and buyers in the 1996 fair.
22. See accounts of this incident in Ruz al-Yusuf, 4 March 1996, 2; al-ʿArabī, 4 March 1996, 8;
Oktober, 17 March 1996, 15.
23. See al-Ahram, 23 January 1999, 10. See also a report on this occurrence in Peace Monitor, 1999,
122.
24. On the tacit agreement between the Egyptian government and the opposition with regard to
the attitude toward Israel, see Ebeid (1990, 26); Albrecht (2005).
25. For an illuminating review of Farag Foda’s liberal thought, see Hatina (2007).
26. For a similar conclusion, see Ajami (1998, 201–203), Berman (2003, 262) and Abaza 2010.
27. For a similar reference to the role of the Cairo book fair in general, and of Mubarak’s traditional
encounters with the muthaqafīn in particular, in “structuring” and controlling the intellectual
field in Egypt, see Jacquemond (2008, 25).
28. See also a report about this incident in al-Ahram al-Masāʾi, 4 February 1993, 11.
29. According to al-Shaʿb (23 February 1996, 3), “The state committed a major crime in banning
the great master (al-ustadh al-kabīr) Muh ammad H asanayn Haykal from taking part in the
Cairo book fair … Haykal is a giant, and the people who criticize him are dwarfs”. In contrast,
a governmental periodical did not fail to retort that
[The opposition] forgot that the list of speakers in the book fair was presented to a
committee of Egyptian thinkers and writers, of which Samīr Sirh ān (the head of the
Book Organization) is not a member … Haykal is a representative of an insignificant
intellectual trend, which recent developments—such as the dissolution of the
Eastern block—has left behind, and there was no reason whatsoever to invite him
to the book fair. (Oktober, 17 March 1996, 10).
30. Kifāya, The Egyptian Movement for Change, was a protest movement challenging Mubarak’s
presidency, which came into existence in the context of the constitutional referendum and
presidential election campaigns of 2005 (see El-Ghobashy 2005; Meital 2006). Yellow stickers
emblazoned with the word “Kifāya” (enough) and taped over the mouths of activists became
the “trade mark” of Kifāya (see Clarke 2011).
31. “April 6” was an Egyptian activist group established in the spring of 2008, in support of workers
in the industrial city of al-Mah allah al-Kubrā, who were planning to strike on April 6. “We are all
Khalid Saʿīd” was a prominent Facebook group created by Wael Ghonim in June 2010, follow-
ing the brutal murder of Kalid Saʿīd—an Egyptian man who was dragged out of an Internet
Café and beaten to death by the police. On these protest movements, which made ample
use of new media, the Internet and social networks, see Ottaway and Hamzawy (2011),
Khamis and Vaughn (2013).
32. According to H ilmī al-Namnam, the Egyptian Minister of Culture, the volume of book sales in
the forty-seventh fair was greater than in previous fairs during the last decade. See, http://en.
albawabhnews.com/78964. This statement was not supported, however, by any formal data.
According to other media reports, 850 publishers participated in the forty-seventh fair, and the
number of visitors exceeded two million people. See, http://magnificentonline.com/3666/
culture-on-the-frontline-cairo-international-book-fair/.
33. See, http://www.youm7.com/story/2016/1/24/%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%
84%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%B1%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%A8%D8%
A7%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A8-%D8%A7%
D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A8%D9%8A%
D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%89-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%B6-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%
82%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%
A8/2552763.
20 I. SHAHAR
Acknowledgements
In writing this article I benefited greatly from input by Israel Gershoni, Yoram Meital, Eyal Ben Ari,
Ursula Woköck and Tamar Parush. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers of History and
Anthropology for their useful comments on an earlier version of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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