Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
Imagine holding a book printed in 1475, or turning the pages where Galileo Galilei first laid out his discoveries of the cosmos. A manuscript handwritten more than a century ago. A copy of the Holy Quran about the size of a thumb.
These were among the rare finds and literary curiosities that captivated visitors at this year's Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
At the stand of London-based Peter Harrington, the oldest item on the stand doubled as its centrepiece: a 1475 printing of Ptolemy's “Cosmographia”, priced at £450,000 or over Dh2.2 million.
"The Ptolemy Cosmography is the book that sparked the geographic revolution in Europe," said bookseller and cataloguer Joseph Bills, noting that the work fuelled centuries of European fascination with cartography.
Just as significant was Galileo Galilei's “Sidereus Nuncius”, published in 1610 and listed at a much higher price tag of £650,000 or about Dh 3.2 million.
Bills described it as “a very consequential book for world history and the history of science” and it was one of only 550 copies ever printed. The book documented Galileo's telescope observations and forever changed how people saw the universe.
Literature fans, meanwhile, gravitated toward a pristine first-edition, first-issue set of J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Lord of the Rings” (1954-1955), priced at £200,000 or over Dh900,000.
The Peter Harrington stand also held a rarer, unpriced treasure: a 17th-century North African manuscript of Ibn Battuta's “Rihla”, offering an early Arabic eyewitness account of the medieval Arabian Peninsula, including lands that are now part of the UAE.
"It has the full section on Ibn Battuta's travels to the Middle East, where he completed the Hajj, visited Makkah, and travelled around the Arabian Gulf," Bills said.
For something more delicate, there's a miniature illuminated holy Quran from 1869, hand-copied and still in its original lacquer binding. "It is done by hand, just with really small handwriting," Bills said.
However, not all the rare works on display were for sale. From Skopje, North Macedonia, The St Clement of Ohrid National and University Library brought a selection from its Oriental Collection — roughly 3,800 manuscripts in total, 2,600 of them in Arabic.
Librarian Marijana Kavčič highlighted a 1559-1560 copy of Ibn Al-Hajib's “Al-Kāfiyah fī al-Naḥw”, a foundational Arabic grammar text laid out with wide margins for centuries of scholarly annotation. She also showed a 1676 commentary on Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's “Bānat Su'ād” and a 1632 copy of “Dīwān al-Mutanabbī”.
However, one piece stands apart within the showcase and it was an autographed Ottoman Turkish translation and commentary on Al-Hariri's “Maqamat”, handwritten by Manastırlı Dâniş Ahmed Efendi no later than 1897.
Library research suggests it is the only surviving copy, Kavčič said.
While it is expected that such rarities would carry hefty price tags, there remained treasures that cost way below the six-figure mark.
At the Arab Archive for Heritage Foundation, a 125-year-old family enterprise now run by Mohammed Sadeq, items started at around Dh50. His stand focused on a century of printed material — magazines, periodicals, children's books — including roughly 70 years of documentation on Abu Dhabi and the UAE, including accounts in Arabic, English and French.
For Sadeq, the value of such material lies in preserving the original record rather than simply owning something old.
"What distinguishes them is that they are first editions," he said. Each item is cleaned, stored, and, when needed, repaired or rebound.
“Preserving heritage is very important, and the UAE has always been a pioneer in preserving heritage.”
All the work that goes into keeping these archives intact is not a just a profession — it’s a mission. And it’s all about encouraging people to read and discover a newfound appreciation of culture, Sadeq said.
