ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Slower-than-average sales have done little to slow enthusiasm for the annual Erbil International Book Fair, with organizers expecting as many as 100,000 visitors to this year’s event. From gilt-edged and hardbound Koranic texts to facsimiles of English classics, the 210 participating book stalls offer an array of choices. The selection, led by ever-popular Kurdish books, has drawn crowds on par with past events, according to event manager Ehab Arif of the Al Mada Group, the Baghdad-based publishing house that organizes the fair in conjunction with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Culture. Still, many of the publishers at the fair said the war with the Islamic State, the economic situation, and even instability across the wider Middle East meant sales were down this year. “In the past they [customers] would look, maybe feel lucky, and buy, but this year they are just looking,” said Saaed Al Barghouti, manager of Kanaan Publishers in Damascus. The region’s ongoing budget dispute with Baghdad has impacted buying power, vendors pointed out, with the salaries of many civil servants in arrears. “People have gone three months with no salary, so there are fewer buyers this year,” said Ashraf Galal, from Dar Al Nashar publishing house in Cairo. Ramy Bittar, sales executive for aA studio in Lebanon, said his sales were down by half from previous years. “The people here in Kurdistan love books and reading but they don't have money this year,” he said. “First they ask the price and then they look at the book – it should be the other way round.” With his firm specializing in architecture and design books, Bittar believes the halt in construction projects had negatively impacted sales. The war with ISIS also meant fewer Arabic speaking visitors from cities like Baghdad and Mosul, he said. There were fewer visitors from other parts of the Middle East too, according to Twana Kurdi of Erbil's Amazon Bookstore. “Last year we had buyers for libraries in Libya,” he said. “But because of the political situation there they didn't come this year.” While Arabic book sales appeared to be down, genres such as religious texts were selling strongly. At the stall of Dar Ibn Hazm a Lebanese religious publisher, Nasr Rejab said this year was his best ever at the fair. Titles by renowned Islamic scholar Ali Tantawi were among his bestsellers. With Kurdistan's ongoing war against ISIS and the question of the region's future in a federal Iraq, interest in Kurdish-language titles has been higher than previous years, vendors said. Sulaimani's Endeshe publishing house had one of the busiest stalls at the fair and employee Aras Abdullah said sales were very strong. Their bestselling title was the newly published “The Clouds of Daniel” by Kurdish writer Bakhtiar Ali. Mohamed Mohamed, a 20-year-old student from Koya, said he was buying a copy of Ali's latest novel based on the author's reputation. “I normally buy books from the bazaar, but it's really amazing to see this place gathering so many books and people in one place,” he said. Held at the international exhibition center at Sami Abdul Rahman Park, this year's fair was opened on April 2 by President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani. The book fair will run until Sunday.
