ABWA participates in Istanbul Int. Book Fair

Wednesday, 14 December 2016
"Revival and propagation of pure Islam" and "protection of Holy Quran and Holy Prophet and Ahlul Bayt's tradition" are among the main and outstanding goals of Ahlul Bayt World Assembly.

"Revival and propagation of pure Islam" and "protection of Holy Quran and Holy Prophet and Ahlul Bayt's tradition" are among the main and outstanding goals of Ahlul Bayt World Assembly.

In order to achieve these two goals, the Assembly has made a lot of efforts. One of these is translation of Shiite sources and books to different languages. Ahlul Bayt World Assembly is the most successful Iranian institution in this regard, translating over 1500 books into 50 languages in three decades.

Obviously, these books have to be delivered to their respective audience. Therefore, the Assembly has annual plans to introduce and distribute these sources in different countries. One of these is to participate in international book fairs.

Istanbul International Book Fair – 2016

The 35th Istanbul International Book Fair started in November 12-20th, 2016 with the slogan of "philosophy and human". 800 publishers and institutions from all around the world were present in this fair. Ahlul Bayt World Assembly too was present in this cultural event.

The Opening Ceremony

The 35th Istanbul International Book Fair opened on November 12 in Istanbul Congress Center in presence of national figures and foreign guests.

"Hussain Payman", Turkish Deputy Minister of Culture, stressed on culture as a tool to stabilize the state by giving statistics about libraries, and book fairs in Turkey. He mentioned the recent attempted coup and said, "The coup was thwarted by the efforts of people and this achievement has to be preserved".

Also, in this ceremony, the German Deputy Minister of Culture, whose country was the especial guest this year, pointed out at the role of book and culture in relations between countries. He too mentioned the recent coup in turkey and stressed on the lawful treatment of the opposition by government.

Ahlul Bayt World Assembly Publication's booth

Ahlul Bayt World Assembly Publication's booth was established as past years and many followers of Ahlul Bayt refered to it.

In this booth, tens of books in English and Turkish were offered. Also books from the Kowsar institution and Turkish books of Al-Mustafa International University were offered.

Islamic softwares of the Ahlul Bayt World Assembly were also offered. In the booth, the CD "Leaders of Guidance" in Turkish for Android was introduced and offered to Turkish citizens.

In addition to ordinary visitors and book lovers, prominent figures too visited the Assembly's booth and got familiar with publication activities of the Assembly. Among these figures were "Sheikh GhadirAkaras", "Professor IlberUrtaili", "BakhtiarAsadZadeh", the Consul General of Iran in Istanbul and a group of managers, professors and students from universities of Turkey.

VIP Guests

This year, Germany was chosen as the special guest of the fair. Germany introduced its culture and literature in the first four days. "Impression of the Words" was the slogan German's used to encourage their Turkish visitors. Also some well-known writers from Germany participated in the fair and were present in their country's booth.

Romania was the Honorary Guest in this year's fair which presented its literature and culture in the first four days of the fair.

Iranian Institutions

In the 35th Istanbul International Book Fair, Cultural affiliation Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iranian Institution of Cultural Fairs had booths of their own.

-Cultural affiliation Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran booth:

This booth was managed by "AbdolrezaRashed", the cultural affiliate of Iran in Istanbul, who hosted the enthusiast of Iranian culture and art.

"Professor Hussain Payman", Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey and "NerdetApaydin", Director General of Culture and Tourism of Istanbul, were among the visitors from Iran's booths. Payman called Iran the brother and friend country and stated, "The cultural relations between the two countries must be more than this and Turkish Ministry of Culture is ready to improve the cultural relations between the countries".

In this meeting, "AbdolrezaRashed", gifted the book "The Supreme Leader's Letters", which was translated by the aid of the Iranian Culture and Islamic Relations Institute, to Turkish Deputy Minister of Culture.

Iran's booth had many visitors from different universities. In this booth, the plan "Support of the translation and publication of Farsi works to other languages" was introduced and many Persian Literature professors welcomed it. In fact, the first people to welcome this plan were the Persian Language professors from the University of Istanbul.

-Iranian Institution of Cultural Fairs booth

This institute also introduced a number of Iranian works and presented some books in the field of poetry and literature.

Media Activities

The assembly's publication managers introduced their works to media and reporters and journalists from different countries.

Absence of Arab Countries

Arab countries, except for Emirates which had a small booth, were not present in the fair. Emirates presented some books on tourism and history.

Arab countries were also not present in Moscow International Book Fair this year which of course seems natural considering the developments in the region. However, it was expected that countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar would be present in the fair regarding their good relations with the Turkish government.

Side Events

In the 35th Istanbul International Book Fair, about 300 meetings, conferences, introductions, poetry recital and concerts were held.

Also, different workshops for different ages in subjects like "law", "education" and "critical thinking" were held.

Also the 26th Istanbul International Art Fair was held at the same time with the Book Fair, in which 25 galleries and works of 10 artists were shown.

Unveiling of two E-books from the Assembly

One of the side events in the Fair was the unveiling of two works of the Assembly and four books by Iranian cultural attaché.

In this ceremony, the software "Meftah" (in 5 languages), the software "Leaders of Guidance" (in Turkish), and four other books including "the Supreme Leader's Letters" were unveiled.

Dr. AbdolrezaRashed added that Iran and Turkey are brother countries and their cultural relations have been effective in strengthening the bonds between the two countries.

It is noteworthy to say that the "Meftah" software includes 70 thousand Quranic, Hadith, Religious, and historical questions and answers which are in Arabic, Farsi, English, Urdu, and Turkish and is runnable on Windows, Android and iOS.

The "Leaders of Guidance", which is about Ahlul Bayt's mannerism and Sirah has been prepared in Turkish too.

Next Year

Next year, the Fair will be held on November 4-12th, 2017 in 9 days in Istanbul.

One of this year's many achievements was that the Ahlul Bayt World Assembly's logo was printed in the official book of the Fair. This facilitates future participations of Assembly in the Fair as a legal institution.

Ahl Al-Bayt World Assembly

The Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly  is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) that was established by a group of Shiite elites under the supervision of the great Islamic authority of the Shiites in 1990 to identify, organize, educate and support the followers of Ahl al-Bayt.

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