It has always been a landmark and an iconic place for books — cheap books, rare books, new books, and secondhand books — all of them offered to anyone passionate about books and ready to explore the famous Azbakeya Book Market near Attaba in Downtown Cairo.
Established in 1907, the late Egyptian writer Suleiman Fayad called the market “the university of the poor” because of the range of books on offer, and it has long been visited by many Egyptian, Arab, and foreign writers as well as celebrated literary figures from across the Arab world.
Following a presidential decree to renovate parts of the Downtown area including the Attaba Market in Cairo, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli inaugurated the newly renovated Azbakeya Book Market last month. It has now been transformed from the stalls that were set up by vendors every day next to a wall in the middle of the Attaba Market to a set of more permanent wooden shops.
Since its establishment, the market has been renovated several times. In 1983, it was temporally transferred to Hussein Street in order to build the Al-Azhar Bridge, after which it returned to its original location.
After a campaign in the 1990s, state publisher the General Egyptian Book Organisation (GEBO) agreed to allow the Azbakeya Market to participate in the annual Cairo International Book Fair, and stallholders from Azbakeya also took part in other fairs like the one at the Cairo Opera House.
Such markets are a well-known fixture in European countries, with the UK, Russia, and France all boasting outdoor book markets. A secondhand book market like that in Azbakeya was established in Jordan in 2011.
The Azbakeya Market was renovated during the rule of former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and then again during that of former president Anwar Al-Sadat.
In a statement issued by the governorate of Cairo, Ibrahim Saber, governor of Cairo, confirmed that the governorate’s executive bodies have completed the procedures for settling 133 owners of stalls at the old Azbakeya Book Market in the new facilities built by the Ministry of Housing in nearby Azbakeya Gardens as part of the preparations for their inauguration.
Saber emphasised the state’s commitment to restoring one of Cairo’s most distinctive cultural landmarks. The Ministry of Housing has established 133 new bookstalls, each designed in line with the area’s heritage and to give ease of access. In the past, a main concern was the risk of fire, given the way in which books were piled up haphazardly in the old market. Today, the new stalls have been fully equipped with fire protection equipment.
In order to visit the new market, visitors can take the Cairo Metro to the Attaba Metro Station, ascend the stairs, and then walk to the Attaba Garage area and the famous Azbakeya Book Market. To the left is the first phase of the newly built wooden bookstores, with these being placed in neat rows, five in each. The newly renovated market has a refreshments area, though this has yet to open. Between the rows of elegant wooden shops there are pavements with greenery. Each of the newly built shops has the name of the shop or of the shop’s owner on it.
Other signs between the shops commemorate Egypt’s famous writers, many of whose works are sold in Azbakeya. Here one can find books by famous names such as Naguib Mahfouz, Taha Hussein, Youssef Idris, and others, and their names appear on signs placed at intervals.
SELLING BOOKS: Bookshop owner Kamel, who has been in the business for 25 years, sells both secondhand and new books in two different shops in Azbakeya, each of which has been renovated.
Kamel worked in many other jobs before discovering his passion for book selling. “I originally worked at a publishing house, and then I worked as a carpenter specialising in bedroom furniture,” Kamel said. “Then I started selling religious books, history books, and philosophy books as well as old books and magazines.”
“I work in the field of book selling because it is my passion. The store I work in was originally owned by the late Am Harbi, who we call ‘the Mayor of the Market’ since he was the oldest shop owner here. His children asked me to take charge of the two bookshops after he died, instead of selling them,” he said.
Kamel has worked in the Azbakeya Market long enough to notice the diversity of the customers, as well the variety of their tastes. “Many types of people come to our shops — children, adults, Arabs, and foreigners. The foreigners are often looking for historical books, including old books, ones with yellow pages that were published some 70 to 100 years ago,” he said.
“They are also fond of old newspapers,” Kamel said, adding that his stall sells mostly books on religion, history, philosophy, politics, poetry and other fields.
He admires the new market design and believes that it could attract new customers. He also compares the current market to the previous one. “I think the new place is wonderful — clean, spacious, and most importantly safe for children and the people who visit us,” he said.
“In the past, customers could have a hard time reaching us as they had to pass through the street vendors, and the area was crowded and noisy. Now it is still a little crowded, but there is easier access. All the customers have to do is leave the metro station, ascend the stairs, and then we are right there.”
As for the effect the new place might have on the kind of customers that come, particularly after the social media reviews of it, Kamel says that new faces are beginning to show up as well as older ones.
“Now we still have our old customers as well as young people who are looking for novels,” Kamel said. He said that the market is also adapted to the financial situation of some families who can no longer afford books for their children at school. “There are bookshops here that sell secondhand schoolbooks for half the regular price for families who cannot afford to buy new ones for their children,” he said.
But in order for the Azbakeya Market to regain its status as a cultural hub, there are some ideas Kamel believes the authorities should implement. “We need a place for literary figures to give talks here in Azbakeya,” he said.
“There should be halls for that purpose equipped with chairs and tables. That would guarantee more customers for the bookshops here and more attendees for the lectures. It would also help increase the information available to young people, who would start reading more books and attending the lectures.”
Ashraf Abdel-Fattah is also a bookseller at the Azbakeya Market, this time in a store specialising in the arts, architecture, and crafts or DIY books.
“Selling books makes me feel very happy,” Abdel-Fattah said, adding that “I have been working in the Azbakeya Market for 25 years and originally come from a rural area where my father was a farmer. But I am a university graduate and graduated from the Faculty of Education, Arts Department.”
“The Azbakeya Market caters for the needs of many age groups, from kindergarten to the elderly,” Abdel-Fattah said. “The customers come from all walks of life. We have university students, doctors, and researchers looking for rare books for their research. The Azbakeya Market is a cultural centre for all Egyptians and Arabs,” he added.
According to Abdel-Fattah, the market offers its customers unique books not to be found elsewhere since the book industry is suffering from the high prices of raw materials that makes new books expensive. “What makes each bookshop in the Azbakeya Market unique is that it has collections that differ from those in others,” he said, aside from their cheaper prices.
“The prices here are affordable for everyone, and a researcher may be able to find the books he needs here that he may not find in other bookshops — and if he did find them there, they would be much more expensive, especially if they were new editions,” he said.
“It is natural that new books are more expensive,” given the prices of materials and distribution, he said. The publishers do not intend to make their books expensive, but “it is something out of their control.”
TRENDS: Abdel-Fattah tries to follow trends in terms of what he offers to his customers.
“The reason I sell DIY books is because we sell what is trending on the Internet, since it has an effect on people’s reading, especially that of young people,” he said.
Despite the disadvantages the Internet has for regular reading habits, it is through the Internet that some of his new customers found out about the newly renovated Azbakeya Market and came to visit it to buy books.
“We have customers who came to see the newly renovated Market after they saw videos of TV interviews posted on Facebook, for instance,” he commented.
“I would like to thank those responsible for renovating the Azbakeya Market for the wonderful renovations. The new place is beautiful. It is separate from the busy Attaba Market, which enables visitors to come with their children in a peaceful atmosphere,” Abdel-Fattah said.
He added that one way of increasing the number of customers would be to add some features that were present in the old market in the new one. “In order to make more visitors want to come to the Azbakeya Market, there should be more benches for them to sit on, just like the ones in the old market,” he said.
“This would mean that people could browse at their leisure and be able to choose without standing up all the time.”
Mahmoud Ramadan sells books for schools like educational books and scientific books. He also sells children’s magazines. He inherited his profession from his family since his father and grandfather were both bookshop owners in Azbakeya.
“We sell educational books for students at all stages and in all types of school, whether public, private, national, international, or even at Al-Azhar. We also sell magazines and storybooks for children in Arabic,” Ramadan said.
It is too early for new customers to come, according to Ramadan, who believes that for the time being the new market is mostly attracting the same kinds of customers.
“But the market has undoubtedly been renovated for the better. There are some visitors we are seeing for the first time who look well-off,” he commented. However, he believes there is still more work that needs to be done in terms of making people know about the new place.
“We need more advertisements to get more customers,” he said.
Visitors to the newly renovated Azbakeya Market are mostly young people who are either university students or who have graduated and are seeking to feed their book-buying habits at reasonable prices.
There are some visitors from the older generations as well. The majority like the renovations but think that there is still more work that needs to be done in terms of making the newly renovated place known to those interested in rare books.
Mohamed is a graduate of the Faculty of Alsun (Languages) in Cairo, Italian Department, and has been looking for books in Italian. He is currently working as a tour guide.
“I think the new Azbakeya Market is very good since it offers books at cheaper prices. I can also find the books I want here that may not be available elsewhere, given the fact that there are not many bookshops in Cairo that offer Italian books. We need to have more advertisements featuring the Azbakeya Market so that more foreigners visit it,” he said.
“I am impressed by the transformation of the place. The last time I visited the market, it was part of the Attaba Market, and we had to look for the books we wanted amid the noise of the street vendors. Today, I feel I am in a cultural centre in a high-end district, but with books sold for good prices,” said Hala, also a university student.
“I think there should be more signs near the entrance of the new market since I had a hard time finding it at first,” she added.
Mona, a psychologist from Sudan, agreed. “I have managed to find some books in the field of psychology here, and the prices are about half those in other shops,” she said.
“But unfortunately, not everyone knows how to reach the new Azbakeya Market. Maybe if some signs were put up, this would help people find the place more easily, especially those who are not familiar with Attaba or people like myself who come from other countries,” she concluded.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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