Dar Al Maaref Bookshop
Justina Ky
While the stores featured in the following list are remarkable testaments of resilience - with most surviving through the waning years of British occupation; the last Egyptian monarchs; a new age of state-building, as well as decades of economic reconstruction; war and revolution right outside their doors, and inevitable industry upheaval - others have been less fortunate.
Many bookshops have turned into stationary stores in the past half century, or completely pivoted industries. Wahib & Co., Maison de Reliure, was one of the last bookbinding ateliers, before transitioning to sell safes and safety deposit boxes a decade ago, bringing in a more stable revenue. A little worn down, the store sign on Abd el-Khalik Tharwat Street remains the same, and the owner still keeps the mammoth binding equipment stored in the back.
The vendors decided to stay put, which started a decades-long feud with the government, who would continuously try to remove them - sometimes blasting fire hoses that would destroy the books - until the market was legalised and the vendors licensed for the first time in the 1940s.
The reason why the books are so cheap is also why there are a surprising number of new English publications, including the most popular young adult and science fiction releases: a lot of them are pirated, which is clear by the off-margin printing and the typos on the cover. Many, however, are second hand, selling at a fraction of the price of new books.
The market is also the holy grail for researchers of modern Arab history. The range of vintage newspapers and magazines, as well as old film posters, is unparalleled. Reading the headlines of Al Ahram and Al Akhbar is fascinating (the front page of a June 1953 Al Joumhouria announces: "President Naguib becomes president of the republic and prime minister, Gamal Abdel Nasser his vice and minister of interior").
Early editions of the weekly magazine Al-Musawar are a treasure trove of Arab visual history. Old comic books like Samir and Sindbad are charmingly nostalgic. And rare finds are capsules of history, like a 1958 edition of Al Qowat Al Mosallaha (The Armed Forces Magazine) that offers a first person account of the war for independence in Algeria.
Thousands of heavy volumes dating as far back as the 18th century line the creaking shelves. The French Description de l'Egypte, which first appeared in 1809 - and was later described by Edward Said as "that great collective appropriation of one country by another" - can be found here, alongside seven volumes of derelict Voltaire and hundreds of first-edition Egyptology scholarship in French and English.
Many items, however, are marvellous connections to history, such as the original sheet music for the annual procession of the kiswa - the cloth fabric that covers the Kaaba, which was made in Egypt from the 12th century until 1962 - out of Cairo to Mecca.
The bookshop was sold to the late Egyptian actor and long-time regular Hassan Kamy by its former Jewish Swiss owner, a Mr Feldman, who left Egypt in 1967 after the Six Day War. Kamy gifted the store to his wife, who passed away in 2012, after which the actor said he intended the store be made into a cultural foundation. When Kamy died in 2018, ownership of the store passed to his lawyer, who revealed papers that indicated the actor had sold the store to him.
The shop was founded by publisher Sobhi Greiss, who modelled it on a Cambridge library, and whose grandsons Khaled and Karim still operate the store today. Gereiss quickly became a public figure to the English, particularly Queen Elizabeth, as the first to export English culture into the Middle East.
Until the 80s, Anglo-Egyptian was the main source of English books in the city. Then other foreign-focused stores opened post-liberalisation, in addition to the chain stores of the 2000s. Today, the bookshop's early focus on English-language literature, medicine, and philosophy - which was in high demand 90 years ago - has expanded into bilingual educational material in every field, with a particular focus on psychology, in addition to its literature section.
Hajj Madbouly had started working with his father in 1944, selling books and magazines when he was just six-years old. In 1951, the family began renting a newspaper kiosk on Talaat Harb Square, where he and his brother would work in shifts. By 1958, the business had expanded to rent the landmark store, as well as a small publishing house feeding what Madbouly called an intellectual renaissance.
After first starting with translations of the works of Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett, the publisher went on to put out thousands of releases, including by Nawal el-Saadawi, Gamal el-Ghitani and Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. After the defeat of 1967, Madbouly became known for selling and publishing books banned by the Nasserist government.
In 1904, Bohemian photographer Rudolf Franz Lehnert met Swiss businessman Ernst Heinrich Landrock while travelling and taking photos. The pair established their first studio for orientalist photographs in Tunis, before moving their business to Cairo in 1924.
Over the years, the bookshop and art gallery has existed in several locations, including inside the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir until 2004. Today, the store has two branches: one downtown location on Abd El-Khalik Tharwat St., a 15-minute walk from Tahrir Square, and the other just across the river on Zamalek island.
The Azhary Heritage Library is small and nearly underground, though the publishing house and bookshop (originally named El Maktaba El Mohamadeya, the Mohammedan Library) has been in business since 1930.
It was established by Mohamed Afendi Embabi El-Minyawy, whose son Haj Mohamed renamed the business into the Azhary Heritage Library in 1988. Now in his 70s, Haj Mohamed still chooses the manuscripts for publication himself.
By the mid-1930s, a growing book industry had formed in Egypt. Dar El Maaref in Faggalah was increasingly surrounded by more and more publishing houses. The Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop was quickly establishing a foothold in its market. Soor El Azbakeya was thriving, albeit still a few years away from official legalisation.
c80f0f1006