Over ten days, despite the war and the outbreak of Covid-19, the city of Ma’rib, which lies at the northeast of the Yemeni capital Sana’a, has launched the activities of the first book fair organized by the city. Under the slogan “Marib, civilization and knowledge”. The book fair welcomed 22 Arab and foreign publishing houses, which have displayed about 20 thousand book titles with a total of 1.3 million copies.
With many literary and intellectual activities as well as book signing ceremonies, the book fair has witnessed a great public turnout. Residents of the city and its surrounding areas found in the book fair an opportunity to participate in cultural activities, communicate with authors, intellectuals, and publishers, and buy books. Sales of some books were more than 50% of the available copies.
The Governor of Ma’rib, Major General Sultan Al-Arada, toured the exhibition and expressed his great happiness at the holding of this great exhibition in the difficult phase of Yemen’s history.
The governor of Ma’rib addressed the visitors at the exhibition, saying, “I am very happy to see the youth turnout at such a great level, and this is our real battle, the battle of knowledge and knowledge. Fight it, heroes.”
Abdullah Ahmad Al-Bakri, the governorate’s undersecretary for administrative affairs added: “The first Ma’rib book fair is indeed an important cultural and intellectual event that featured active participation of local and Arab publishing houses, cultural institutions and Arab and Yemeni intellectuals, who were granted the chance to be informed about the latest developments in culture and the recent publications in various types of science, ideology, literature, and culture.”