Here in the Gambia my school was among the first to work with UNESCO in involving nursery and primary school age children in understanding and valuing intangible cultural heritage.
Emirati-Egyptian MoU targets co-printing, shared ISBNs and simultaneous Arabic release of world-heritage backlist
A three-day mission to Egypt’s National Centre for Translation (NCT) has given Sharjah Institute for Heritage (SIH) the green light to place up to 40 conservation and folklore titles into a joint Arabic publishing programme.
The deal, finalised on 28 January in the New Administrative Capital, is the first time an Emirati heritage body has secured dedicated press capacity at the state-owned NCT print works, guaranteeing runs of 3,000+ copies for SIH backlist that previously averaged 800–1,000.
Grant pipeline and translation fund offset production risk for regional publishers
Publishers who opt into the SIH–NCT catalogue will be eligible for Sharjah Book Authority translation grants of $1,500–$250,000 per project depending on length and language direction, removing up-front cost barriers that have historically discouraged commercial presses from acquiring specialised heritage manuscripts.
Rights remain with originators, but NCT takes a five-year exclusive Arabic licence, after which co-editions can be re-negotiated.
Professional development strand offers editors on-site training in heritage metadata
Alongside print commitments, the institute will host two annual workshops on cataloguing intangible cultural assets, one in Sharjah (October) and one in Cairo (April), aimed at editorial, production and rights staff. Topics include controlled vocabulary for Arabic folklore, TEI-XML mark-up for oral-history transcripts, and accessibility standards for manuscripts – skills that smaller heritage publishers rarely formalise, and that we here in The Gambia can only dream of.
Market context – Arabic heritage segment outperforms general non-fiction
Sales of heritage, archaeology and conservation titles in Arabic rose 11% in 2024, according to Nielsen BookScan MENA, while the wider non-fiction market shrank 3%.
Sharjah’s International Book Fair, which drew 1.4 million visitors last November, reported sell-out runs for bilingual heritage children’s books, suggesting institutional and school demand is cushioning commercial risk.
The View From The Beach: Sharjah positions itself as heritage rights gateway
Dr Abdulaziz Al Musallam, SIH chairman said that forthcoming deals with Bibliotheca Alexandrina and ICCROM-Sharjah will create a triangular rights hub: “Our role is to license, not just publish. If we can standardise Arabic heritage terminology, we become the preferred supplier for museums and universities worldwide.”
This news item got special interest from me for its report that there will be two annual workshops on cataloguing intangible cultural assets. Here in the Gambia my school was among the first to work with UNESCO in involving nursery and primary school age children in understanding and valuing intangible cultural heritage.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.
