31st Tehran International Book Fair

The 31st Tehran International book fair started in Tehran on May 2nd and will continue till May 11. We will briefly discuss the performance of Tehran International Book Fair throughout the past three decades.

Tehran International book fair is held in May every year. The exhibition is one of the greatest cultural events in Iran and even in the world. The first round of Tehran International Book Fair was held in 1987 and since then it provides an opportunity for the acquaintance of the young generation with writers, publishers and books in general. For the few past years, rules and regulations have been determined so that a large part of the book exhibitions activities would be assigned to the publishing industry. This has led to further participation by various social strata.

130 thousand square meters have been allocated for publishers and 53 countries have taken part in Tehran Book Fair. 2050 domestic publishers have participated in the event with academic publishers, publishers of children and teen-agers and publishers of educational books taking the lead in the number of titles. However, the public publisher section ranks first with 1147 publishers and around 86,000 book titles.

In view of introducing Kashan as the Iranian capital of book in the current year, one day of the Tehran International Book Fair will be dubbed in the honour of Kashan.

The secondary programs will include introduction of pavilions of book publishers, information about Kashan and the carrying out of routine programs at the Kashan pavilion and the house of penmen. Unveiling of new books, critique of books, signature celebration and meeting with the writers and literary figures of Kashan are among the other programs of this event.

In this round of the exhibition, we will have 7 pavilions with 5 titles and for each of the pavilions; different programs have been taken into consideration. In the house of penmen 60 programs have been scheduled for 90 hours and the issues of some of these programs are as follows: a review of the obstacles and challenges of publishing industry, copyright, publishers tax exemptions act, publishing economy, Iran presence at foreign exhibitions and export and import of books from and to Iran. Also on the occasion of the 60^th anniversary of establishing the Union of Publishers and Book Sellers of Tehran, a ceremony will be held at this exhibition.

The holding of Pahlevani (chivalric championship) ceremony, commemoration of acclaimed Islamic Scholar Sheikh Saduq, elucidating the culture of awaiting for Imam Mahdi, promoting the culture of proper use of water and introducing Iran's cultural and tourism capacities with the presence of Iranian officials and foreign ambassadors are among other programs that visitors will witness during the Tehran International Book Fair.

The foreign section of the 31^st Tehran Book Fair includes Arab and Latin publishers, with 86 Arab publishers with about 37,500 titles and 46 Latin publishers with 120,000 titles at the exhibition. 86 digital publishers are located in separate halls in another section of the exhibition.

One of the priorities of the organizers of this great event in the past years has been to strengthen cultural bonds and to engage with the world through the rich Islamic-Iranian culture and books. That’s why the country’s program and the special guest city or country have been seriously taken into consideration. Last year, Italy was the special guest which led to the enthusiasm of Italian publishers in translating Iranian works and other positive outcomes. Since last year, 10 Iranian novels have been translated into Italian language.  

In this round of the Tehran International Book Fair, Serbia has been chosen as the special guest, and there are 30 officials, writers, poets, publishers, reporters and a music band from the country in a special hall. More than 20 meetings and roundtables have been provided for the Serbian guests at the exhibition.

The Serbian minister of culture and information Vladan Vukosavljević and the manager of Serbian National Library Laslo Blašković will attend the exhibition in the form of an official delegation. The Serbian pavilion is scheduled to display more than 300 titles in the fields of literature, history, art and tourism in the country, and several cooperation programs of universities and cultural centers have been prepared for the guests.

There are also six writers, poets and publishers as guests at the Tehran Book Fair including the writers Goran Petrović and Srdjan Seric, Muslim author Muharem Bazdulj, poet Vojislav Karanović, and publisher Ms. Bora Babić. An 8-member art band is also present in the cultural group of the Serbian Republic who will hold Turkaulia concert. The program will be screened during the exhibition days.

The Tehran International Book Fair has approximately 20% of the turnover of the publishing industry, as the link between consumers and book producers. The book publishing includes all activities that are carried out in order to produce the works of the written culture again and again.

The history of printing industry and arrival of printing house in Iran dates back to over a century ago. The first generation of Iranian publishers mainly started their works in the areas of Tehran Bazaar. They were book sellers who began their job by publishing the copies of the noble Quran, the magnum opus of Ferdowsi Shahnameh and Mowlavi's great work Masnavi. Tehran has been the center of publishing industry and related jobs from the beginning.

For years, the publishers would mainly concentrate on classic Farsi literature and religious texts and book publication was traditionally transferred from father to son or brother. This generation, prior to 1921 set up only one publishing house and throughout the years 1922 to 1931 established 16 publishing houses in Iran. Although they mainly started their work in different areas of Tehran's Bazaar such as Timcheh Hajeb ad-Dowleh, Bein al-Haramein, and Nasser Khosrow Street, due to the vast expansion of Tehran, they developed their own bookstores in front of Tehran University.

Some of the first Iranian publishers are “Elmi” and “Ramezani”. Elmi publication is one of the most prolific and famous publishers of the first generation of book publishing industry in Iran. The grandfather of Elmi publishers, Mirza Ali Akbarkhan Khansari, worked as a bookseller in Khansar city of Isfahan province. He left for Tehran and set up a bookstore in Timcheh Hajeb ad-Dowleh. His son, Mirza Mohammad Ismail, worked first with the father and then opened a shop of his own in Nasser Khosrow.

The second generation of Iranian publishers gradually stepped in the field of book publishing industry in the 50s to 70s of the Gregorian Calendar. Their impetus for setting up publishing centers was to make the youths familiar with modern literature and the publishers were often writers, translators and literary critics. This generation represented contemporary Farsi literature and modern world literature.  

The third generation embarking on book publishing industry after the victory of the Islamic Revolution are considered young publishers. These publishers started disseminating the works of contemporary writers - both domestic and foreign – and in a very soon would supply Iran's publishing market with contemporary works of the world.

Presently Iran’s publishing industry is divided in two government and private sectors. The government sector has certain facilities and capacities which are not at the disposal of the private sector and competition between these two is not balanced.

Of course, private publishers have suffered from internet space and digitization of texts. In recent years, the spread of internet has caused many buyers of books and newspapers and magazines to go to cyberspace. This trend of spending one's time in cyberspace has been increasing so much so that, according to the latest figures released by the secretary general of Iran’s public libraries, averagely 8.8% of people read e-books and this rate has increased to 42% among book-readers.

So, apart from the opportunities provided for researchers by digitizing texts, the internet has removed one of the ways of monetize for small publishers. Thus, with regard to progress of information technology, development of printing industry and the movement of publishing industry towards professionalism; the standardization of various sectors of the industry and principled privatization of the publishing industry are among the things that can improve the publishing industry in the private sector and encourage people to study more and more.

FK/RM/MG