Beirut- The absence of the Beirut Arab International Book Fair for 3 consecutive years represented a bitter setback in Lebanon’s cultural movement, and for the first time since its establishment in 1956, cut off the direct relationship between Lebanese and Arab publishers and readers, after they were waiting for the end of each year to come.
Beirut Fair gained its heritage as the first book fair established in the Arab world, and it survived even during the years of the Lebanese wars. But its forced closure (2019, 2020 and 2021), due to the Corona pandemic, the political, security and economic turmoil, and the explosion of the port that destroyed its spacious hall, revealed the dangerous reality of the publishing sector in Lebanon.
After Beirut was called the “press of the Arabs”, and embraced writers and thinkers fleeing censorship to publish their works, many find that the capital of Lebanon is losing its uniqueness.
In a reading of the experiences of publishers and the reality of publishing between the past and the present, and its challenges and cultural repercussions, Al Jazeera Net interviewed the president of the Lebanese Publishers Union, Samira Assi, the director of “Dar Al-Tanweer” publisher Hassan Yaghi, the director of “Dar Al-Adab” publisher Rana Idris, and the director of “Riyad Al Rayes for Books and Publishing” Publisher Fatima Beydoun.
Show setback
The number of Lebanese publishing houses is about 500, including 109 registered by the Syndicate, a number that has decreased by about half compared to the past, according to Assi, and there are some Iraqi and Syrian publishers in Lebanon.
The head of the Syndicate describes the reality of publishing houses during the crisis as “tragic”, and reveals that their sales fell to more than 70%, especially since all their requirements are paid in dollars, while books are sold in the Lebanese market in pounds, which lost more than 90% of their value, “in exchange for the absence of Entire state to support self-reliant publishers in distribution and marketing.
Assi explains that the continuation of publishers depends on their participation in Arab exhibitions, and that the Syndicate is communicating with the relevant ministries in the Arab countries to reduce the prices of the pavilions, as a kind of support for Lebanese publishers in their plight, after decades in which they formed the weight of book fairs in the Arab world.
The head of the Syndicate regrets the “compelling circumstances that suspended the activity of the Beirut Exhibition”, and talks about the tremendous efforts it is making with the publishers, to provide conditions that would allow it to resume its activity at the end of this year.
Publishing in Lebanon a victim of piracy
From the book fair’s setback, publisher Hassan Yaghi starts from his 30-year experience to talk about the stages of publishing in Lebanon. Yaghi has taken over the management of “Dar Al-Tanweer” since 2012, after its establishment in 1980, 3 companies: the head office is in Beirut, one is in Egypt and the other is in Tunisia.
Yaghi faced great challenges, especially since this house poured an exceptional effort into translating intellectual works by great philosophers such as Hegel, Kant, Sartre, and Spinoza…, and some novel and literary publications, and gave the origins of translation its right as a creative craft that preserves intellectual and property rights.
Yaghi says that the golden age of publishing was in the 1970s, and then it suffered a setback during the civil war years, until it witnessed growth in the 1990s that continued almost until 2015.
Coinciding with the #Jeddah_International_Book_ExhibitionThe Boho Café in Jeddah is hosted by Mr. Hassan Yaghi, Director #Dar_al-Tanweer To talk about the topic “What is the Arab reader reading today?”
On Tuesday, December 17, from eight to nine in the evening. pic.twitter.com/At7lrEirHj— Dar Al-Tanweer (@Daraltanweer) December 16, 2019
In a country mired in chaos and collapse, the major crisis in the publishing sector, according to Yaghi, is “the frightening spread of piracy, forgery and theft of rights, in contrast to the absence of deterrent laws to protect intellectual property.”
Yaghi believes that the crises in Lebanon have made way for investors to publish as a purely commercial issue, and they have worked to pirate books and convert them electronically to sell or read them in exchange for paid subscriptions. He finds that they took advantage of the decline in the purchasing power of Lebanese readers, and provided pirated PDF copies.
On the political level, Yaghi finds that closing some Gulf markets to Lebanese publishers, particularly in Saudi Arabia, affected them economically, because it is the largest Gulf market for them, in parallel to the complexity of shipping operations and censorship of titled books about Lebanon.
He finds that the suspension of book fairs after the Corona pandemic, and their gradual return with strict restrictions, “disrupted the basic link between publishing houses and readers.”
Yaghi points out that publishing requirements, such as ink, papers, printing and foreign translation rights are all paid in dollars, so the Lebanese market has become very weak, because the prices of books have increased in pounds by about 10 times.
Yaghi expects to close a number of publishing houses, or to move abroad, “and this puts the Lebanese cultural and written production at risk.”
It is noteworthy that this danger is the result of intertwined factors, the first of which is the collapse of the academic level in Lebanon. He said that the revival of the field of novels due to the presence of creative Lebanese writers in it, was met with a terrible decline in intellectual production, “as a reflection of the reality of Lebanese universities, which have become unable to fund their research.”
The collapse of publishing threatens creativity
Rana Idris accompanied her family with the growth of the “Dar Al-Adab”, which was established in Beirut in 1956. She is the daughter of the founder of the house, the late writer and publisher Suhail Idris, her mother, the writer and translator Aida Matarji, and her brother, the critic, writer and intellectual Samah Idris, who passed away in November 2021.
Rana Idris finds that she and her family lived a rich experience in the world of publishing, after returning from America in 1985, at the request of her father to help them in the house.
“I brought with me new ideas for the house, so we introduced Japanese literature to the Arab world after it flourished in America, with translations through a third, intermediate language,” she said.
manager@DarAlAdabProfessor Rana Idris was a guest of the program #Aljazeera_this_morning To talk about the effect #Corona On the publishing sector in the Arab world, I spoke about the French and German models in dealing with the crisis, and unfortunately, the Arab ministries of culture are in another valley. pic.twitter.com/vCU5sTstBY
— Ahmed Ould Aslam (@A7medisselmou) June 27, 2020
Within two years, the house had translated about 14 Japanese versions. Her father translated the novel “Sorrow and Beauty” by the Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, and her mother translated “The Sailor Who Sent by the Sea” by novelist Yukio Mishima.
The family established the concept of “democratizing publishing” through a committee that selects books, and drew a single red line against what it called Zionist tendencies, “because Palestine is at the heart of the cause of the house, which mixed the dimensions of its political, cultural and Arab messages.”
She believes that she experienced the deep meaning of Beirut as a lung for the breathing of Arab thinkers, away from the censorship of their regimes. “We published, for example, the novel “The Children of Our Neighborhood” by Naguib Mahfouz for his fear of publishing it in Egypt, and the novel “The Shell” by Mustafa Khalifa, who narrated his experience in Syrian prisons, and it has been translated into about 10 languages.”
Idris finds that the golden age of the house was in the sixties, when publishing and translations centered around Arab countries wresting their independence from colonialism.
Currently, “defeats are besieging us in the Arab world, and publishing houses are no longer a profitable project,” in her opinion, and “the only passion that motivates us to continue, because the losses are huge, and we woke up to the banks holding what we gained throughout our lives.”
And he remembers that publishing has become multipolar and countries have made themselves self-sufficient, as “Lebanon is no longer the center of publishing, and it has accepted it in the Arab world.”
And she believes that the collapse of the Lebanese pound has put publishing houses in an awkward position with Lebanese readers, and “whatever we do to take care of them, those with modest salaries will not be able to buy books.”
She said that their sales declined a lot, because Lebanon constitutes about 20% of their market, and that the suspension of the book fair’s activity constituted a material and moral slap, accompanied by tragic changes in the scene of Beirut after the explosion of the port.
She pointed out that some Lebanese publishing houses have stopped publishing, and “breaking in with competitive and attractive titles has become a difficult task,” noting that the Ministry of Culture does not support publishers and writers.
And she warned of the repercussions of the collapse of the publishing sector, if each house did not find a balanced policy for steadfastness, “and this reflects on the enthusiasm of writers and threatens Lebanese creativity, and hinders its literary and cultural manifestation.”
Freedom of publishing in Beirut is in danger
Fatima Beydoun Al Rayes runs the house that was founded by her late husband, journalist, critic and publisher Riad Al Rayes (1937-2020).
Al Rayes passed away after the port exploded, affected by his infection with the Corona virus, leaving behind the biography of an ancient and unique publisher, and his companion found herself facing difficult challenges to preserve and develop his legacy.
Beydoun says that her husband broke the concept of the house as a printing press to publish books, and made it a cultural project to spread thought and incite writers to write, and to publish books that provoke controversy and stimulate the mind to question and research.
Thus, “he underwent exceptional experiments, and published from Beirut hundreds of publications that broke the taboos of religion, politics and the authorities”, and he issued the magazine “Al-Naqid”, which caused a stir in the Arab world, and some countries banned its entry, then stopped publishing, and encouraged the publication of poetry in the house in exchange for prizes. annual.
Beydoun explains that the house did not prioritize translation, but rather focused on exploring the depths of Arab thought and creativity, and it has more than 1,400 authors in its credits, in history, philosophy, criticism, politics, religion and literature.
But the reality has changed upside down, and after years of the house’s struggle by provoking intellectual debate and challenging censorship, as she described it, “today it faces challenges that threaten the future of its continuation with the same momentum.”
She points out that some Arab writers have avoided publishing in Lebanese publications compared to their previous enthusiasm, “because of the political and economic turmoil and the closure of some Arab markets, which made it difficult for us to stifle.”
Despite the instability, Beydoun asserts that the reputable publishing houses do not compromise the quality of their publications, “in order to preserve their history and heritage, even if the price is a sharp decline in sales.”
Previously, “we used to publish about 50 books annually, and today we do not exceed an average of 15 books.”
The publisher believes that the Beirut Book Fair is facing crises that preceded the suspension of its activities, “as it has transformed in recent years from an international fair to a local one that does not attract all Arab publishing houses, which are becoming attracted to exhibitions of other countries that have provided the elements and facilities for displaying their written production.”
She concluded by saying that the ability to incur losses will not exceed the next two years, and “otherwise we may face an existential crisis that we have not experienced in our history.”