The 2025 Cairo International Book Fair is underway from January 23th to February 5th at the Egyptian Center for International Exhibitions on the outskirts of Cairo. The event has featured over 1,300 publishers from the Middle East and beyond and is believed to be the largest exhibition of its kind in the Middle East. Al-Ahram newspaper estimates that more than 3.5 million people have visited this year. For those interested in interreligious relations in Egypt, the official book fair slogan selected for this year is rather striking: 

Read…in the beginning was the Word.

اقرأ ... في البدء كان الكلمة 

The slogan combines what is often believed to be the first word (Q 96:1) revealed in the Qurʾān and the famous opening verse of the Gospel of John. Religious publishing houses comprised a significant percentage of booksellers at the fair. 

(CAWU interns and staff at the book fair.)

(Book purchases included 1) Dr. Otto Meinardus’ (d.2005) useful survey, Christians in Egypt  2) Grand Mufti Dr. Shawqī ʿAllām’s The Relationship Between Muslims and Christians according to Recent Egyptian Fatwas 3) Former al-Azhar Grand Imām Maḥmūd Shaltūt’s (d.1963) classic book, Islam: Theology and Law.)

On Thursday evening, January 30th, we attended an award ceremony in honor of Dr. ʿAlī al-Sammān (1929-2017), a prominent journalist, political advisor, and interfaith pioneer, organized by the Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding and Partnership at All Saints Anglican/Episcopal Cathedral in Cairo. Born in Tanta in the Nile delta, Dr. al-Sammān earned a PhD in political science from the University of Paris. He served as an advisor to President Anwar Sadāt in the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. al-Sammān turned toward interfaith work and was instrumental in establishing interfaith dialogue agreements between the Vatican (1998), the Anglican Communion (2002), and Al-Azhar. Further information about Dr. al-Sammān’s life and contributions to interfaith relations can be found here. 

(The CCMUP award ceremony in honor of  Dr.ʿAlī El-Sammān.)

The winner of the 2025 ʿAlī al-Sammān Interfaith Award went to Rev. Asʿad Talʿat, a Presbyterian minister who founded the intercultural center, Safīna (“ship, boat”), in Minya, a region in Egypt where Christian and Muslim relations can be challenging. 

We hope the new year is off to a good start for our readers and we continue to thank God for the ceasefire in Gaza.

Matthew Anderson

Director - Center for Arab-West Understanding

Executive Editor - Dialogue Across Borders (Brill)

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February 2, 2025