Baghdad International Book Fair opens for 27th edition

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Baghdad International Book Fair opened Thursday evening for its 27th edition, drawing more than 600 local, Arab and foreign publishing houses, the event's media official Nur al-Karim said. Al-Karim said cultural circles, students and readers from several countries showed strong interest at the stands, with books on science, literature and thought on display. Oman is the guest of honor this year. Sami al-Adawi, an adviser at Oman's Ministry of Culture and Sports, pointed to cultural ties between the two countries and recalled that Ahmed bin Khalil al-Farahidi traveled from Oman to Basra and helped spread the science of Arabic prosody. Hussein Musa, a representative of the Lebanese publisher Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, said Iraqi readers showed interest across categories and that first-day sales were high. Hasan Musa, director of the publisher Dar al-Rasul al-Akram, said the house brought around 1,500 Islamic works to the fair, covering hadith, narration and tafsir. At the Palestine stand, no books were displayed; only the word "genocide" appeared at the center, a reference to Israeli attacks on Gaza that began in 2023. The fair runs through the 12th with cultural talks, panel discussions and book signings.