An oasis of proud perfection and order amid Cairo tumult

Mohammed Abd El-Zaher's bookshop has been binding books by hand since 1936, building a gilded reputation and withstanding the rise and fall of many a regime.

By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / August 9, 2013

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Bookshop owner Mohammed Abd el-Zaher demonstrates how he places letter templates together like Scrabble pieces before heating them over an open flame and imprinting custom gold lettering on his hand-bound books.

Christa Case Bryant / The Christian Science Monitor

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CAIRO

There is at least one place where supreme order prevails amid all the political upheaval in Egypt:Abd El-Zaher Bookshop, which caters to many foreign embassies in Cairo as well as well-heeled customers around the globe.

Established in 1936, it has withstood the rise and fall of the supremely popular pan-Arabist Gamal Abdel Nasser; Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated after becoming the first Arab leader to make peace withIsrael; Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for 30 years after Sadat; and most recently, Mohamed Morsi of theMuslim Brotherhood, who was deposed by the military July 3.

Here, they are concerned not with the latest conspiracy theories but with a timeless craft: binding books by hand. Amid Cairo’s chaotic streets, where the daily frictions of life in a teeming city have been exacerbated by political tension, the bookshop offers an oasis of perfection, from its carefully arranged shelves to the gilt spines and custom lettering that adorn its books.

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“I’m very precise in the work I do,” says owner Mohammed Abd El-Zaher, who began as an errand boy before taking charge in 1962. “I’m proud because I am able to preserve something that is dying out. Especially now in Cairo with everything evolving very quickly, it’s very important to take care of these smaller details.”

And at a time when many Egyptians are embarrassed about the turmoil in their country, once the most powerful and venerated in the Arab world, he also takes pride in the fact that foreigners value his shop’s work.

“It makes us so happy that an Egyptian product that we made with our hands can impress a foreigner,” says Mr. Abd el-Zaher, whose team of 14 uses paper and other materials from as far away as France and India. “It also really impresses us that we can get materials from abroad and make something that foreigners can’t make.”

To be sure, the deterioration in Egypt’s economy has affected business, though not because of the drop in tourism. “Normally tourists come here to ride the camels or see the pyramids” – not pick their way through creaking carts and stray dogs to select a new guest book or travel journal from his store.

“The more important thing,” he says, “is that our clientele – a certain type of foreigner intellectuals who like customized binding – these people have left.”

Still, they’re ordering from abroad, sometimes paying up to six times more for shipping than for the binding work itself, just to possess themselves of the handiwork of an Egyptian tradesman toiling in the shadow of Cairo’s Al Azhar mosque – and the country’s unpredictable politics.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/Olive-Press/2013/0809/An-oasis-of-proud-perfection-and-order-amid-Cairo-tumult

samples of our work

All Leather french bound with frame , 100% hand made & gild the price is 1/30 of European prices 

Note BookSotor Al-Horeya - Calligraphy 

full leather with extra gold and frames

Also, we make all boxes needed in office,house,archive and cars using high quality of materials

our staff at work area

some reviews of our customers

Manisha wrote this article about her experience in her blogspot"Living in Egypt" on Thursday,October 16, 2008:_

Abdel Zaher book binder

Had read about the bookbinder's market near Khan but save for a few shops on Al Azhar street, did not really see much else.

However, a few days ago, while googling, I came across the name of Abdel Zaher on Times (of London) as being a book binder who practices the old oriental art of book binding and who is in great demand. So decided to go see what he was all about.

First of all, it was very difficult to find the shop. Its behind Al Azhar mosque in a narrow street, where driving a car is definately a test of skill. And we overlooked the shop twice, since there was no signage which mentioned his name or if it was, it was in Arabic!


Went in to a shop that was being renovated and most of the stuff was lying on tables in the centre of the shop.

The shop is full of a number of items all made of papper or cloth. There are photo albums, sketch books, tissue boxes, CD holders, magazine holders etc. They are made from varied materials including tuscany paper, handmade papper, canvas cloth printed with arabic calligraphy etc. The notebooks and photo albums have a leather binding and which can be stamped in gold print depending on what you want written, at no extra cost.I bought an old fashioned photo album with black sheaves and self adhesive corners, though much of his stuff reminded me of smilar things available back home (am I begining to sound like an Indophile or is is that India has so much varied art and craft that I find so many things similar?). I am planning to add the photographs and then go back to him to get the name of the place stamped on the binding!

Interview with Mr. Mohamed Abdel Zaher

With over half a century of craftsmanship under his belt, Mohamed Abdel Zaher has transformed his family-run book-binding business into a modern enterprise, retaining all of its character and charm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/real_cities/8163775.stm

About us

Being a major center of the fine art of book-binding,Abdel Zaher atelier is an extrapolation of one of the  oldest and unique crafts in Egypt's history.the Ancient Egyptian's spiritual interest in recording and preserving the events of their lives for the afterlife drove them to bind their diaries and manuscripts.in this context,the art of book-binding emerged and developed as an integral part of Egyptian cultural history.
 Since antiquity,Egypt has thus abounded array of workshops and skilled craftsmen in this fine art.Unfortunately,with the advent of the modern binding machines,the traditional art of book-binding started to slowly subside and disappear.
Amid this gradual decline of the profession,only Abdel Zaher atelier stands as the home that preserves this fine art.In1936, Mr. Abdel Zaher Ibrahim started reviving the traditional methods of book-binding and refining  them.This revitalization project was then taken over and sustained by his son Mr. Mohamed Abdel Zaher for more than five decades.By 1993,radical renovations took place .The Atelier starts to use imported materials to add variety to the appearance of the bound books while maintaining its classical quality.we worked for more than seven years on developing the performance of all of the craftsmen in the Atelier and giving them more latitude to polish their skills and express their ideas.In addition and through dealing with customers with variegated backgrounds,the Atelier started to introduce a number of new products like Notebooks, Photo Albums,Drawing Sketchbooks and Documents  Boxes,along with a whole list of other new items.
This huge development attracted a lot of local and international attention to the work of Atelier.In this wake,an entire company was established in France ,under the name of Elam,to market and distribute our products.In addition we have started to promote and sell our products in UK,USA and the rest of Europe.
In the recent years our customers have expanded to include big corporations and institutions both in Egypt and worldwide like EFG Hermes for whom we make their annual gifts,Alexandria Bibliotheque  for whom we design and produce Art Catalogues and Galleries and a number of American companies.