متابعة/ المدى
The Iraq International Book Fair opened the doors of its halls, which are decorated with the most important Iraqi and Arab publishing houses, in front of the public of visitors and readers. In a daily press tour to cover the most important publishing houses participating, We decided to start from the Iraqi Hall, which includes the Iraqi publishing houses participating in the exhibition through their valuable Iraqi publications and publications that have an impact on the ancient cultural range in the Iraqi street and leave a permanent impact on cultural forums and festivals. At the forefront of which is Dar Al-Rafidain because of its knowledge heritage that has a role in promoting the establishment of different cultures and dissolving barriers between different cultural orientations in society.
From year to year and from one book fair to another, Dar Al-Rafidain adopts a different framework on which it focuses in its publications on many illustrious figures in human history. Recently, the house launched the project of literature of correspondence between intellectuals, and in this regard, Mohammed Hadi, director of Dar Al-Rafidain and vice president of the Association of Publishers and Writers, says: “We adopt a different theme with each year and every cultural festival, We launched this idea in 2019 with the beginning of the correspondence literature project, as we issued about 18 books, the last of which was Nietzsche’s correspondence. “This genre revived the idea of realistic reading of the life of writers without frills, What reveals his direct movements to the reader, So when the writer writes a letter, he will be in his real state, he did not plan it in advance and does not know that it will one day be a published book, This illustrates the importance of the role of messages.”
With regard to biographical literature, The project that saw the light of day recently Hadi says: “Due to the Corona pandemic, we are long overdue, but we have issued more than 10 books about autobiography, including Helen Claire, She is a child who lost her sight, hearing and pronunciation and suffered a lot, but she studied and learned until she got a master’s degree, Bernard Shaw and finally Nietzsche and these books were not previously translated.”
Other projects under implementation are being prepared by Dar Al-Rafidain In this regard, Hadi commented: “Another project that will be launched soon, which is the transfer and translation of the literature of Leandro Fernandez, the Spanish writer who is another Shakespeare, we will translate all 12 of his novels into Arabic through the specialist Dr. Abdul Hadi Saadoun,” aiming to educate the Iraqi and Arab street in Spanish literature, represented by Fernandez. “Fernández is the first novelist in the world to write a novel from a Spanish point of view, as the Spaniards are biased towards their literature, and we translate his works in partnership with the Kuwaiti Dar Takween.” The themes of the coming years take a more different turn, as Hadi says, adding: “Our theme for 2021 is prison literature, and 2022 will be the illustrated biography that presents the biography of the character through pictures, is our next axis, and we are now preparing and preparing for it, and this we did not announce in advance.”
As for the best-selling books in the house during the first day of the exhibition, Hadi says: “It is difficult to determine now on the first day of the exhibition, but from our observations comes the demand often for the spirit of the canons of Montesquieu, It is a book that was forgotten for a while and then we made some scientific modifications and revisions to it, On the importance of Dar Al-Rafidain’s participation in the exhibition, Hadi concludes by saying: “As one of the organizers of the exhibition, we see in our participation a key role, as we as Iraqis are biased towards culture, especially since today precedes the anniversary of the day of victory over ISIS. It is the second most important exhibition at the international level in Iraq, and this is a victory for the book and a pride for us, an alternative culture to the culture of terrorism, This image represented by beauty, culture, love and peace that we must issue about Baghdad through the book fair, which is a challenge to the virus and mobilizing the masses in a difficult period, and this is a victory in itself,” thanking all those in charge of it, especially the management of Al-Mada Foundation.