Bibliotheca Alexandrina celebrates Egypt's publishing house

This Wednesday the Bibliotheca Alexandrina will unveil its project documenting Dar Al-Hilal's contribution to the Egyptian literary scene, on the 150th anniversary of its founder, Gorgy Zeidan. The celebration of the well known publishing house will take place in El-Sennary House in Cairo with a guest list that includes Ismail Serageldin, head of the Bibliotheca, Helmy El-Namnam, CEO of Dar Al-Hilal and Emad Abou-Ghazi, the former minister of culture. Gorgy Zeidan, the founder of Dar Al-Hilal, was born in Beirut on the 14 December, 1861 to a poor Christian family and started his career as a journalist at Al-Zaman daily newspaper in Cairo. In 1886 he published his first book, Linguistic Philosophies and Arabic Expressions. He then launched Al-Hilal magazine in September 1892, a publication that fast became one of the most widely read and prestigious periodicals of the time because of the scope of its topics which appealed to all readers, regardless of their backgrounds. In 1894, Zeidan started the series of Al-Hilal novels, comprised of the translated works of international authors. After his death, his two sons, Emile and Choukri, took over and continue the development and expansion of Al-Hilal.