Culture minister marks 125 anniversary of establishing Dar el-Maaref

Culture Minister Helmy Namnam attended Sunday a ceremony marking the 125th anniversary of establishing Dar El Maaref publishing house.

A film documenting the history of Dar El Maaref was screened during the ceremony.

Lebanese Ambassador in Cairo Khaled Zeyada took part in the event along with Ahmed Shabib al Dhahiri, the Director-General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Zayed Bin Sultan al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation.

Delegations from the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also attended the ceremony alongside key Egyptian writers and intellectuals.

Dar al Maaref is one of the oldest publishing houses in the Arab world and plays an important role in making readily available new editions of classic works of Arabic literature, scholarship, and translations at affordable prices.

It was built in 1890 by Lebanese entrepreneur Shafiq Mitry.

The year 1943 saw the pinnacle of Dar El Maaref's success, when Taha Hussein took over and started a book series Iqraa (Read). was the first institution to pay attention to conserving the heritage. It was also the first to start translating books from English, which was also one of Hussein's ideas. He published a series of translations of Shakespeare's works.