Rabat book fair pairs UNESCO launch with France guest program and Ibn Battuta tribute

Rabat will launch its UNESCO World Book Capital 2026 program this month alongside the 31st International Publishing and Book Fair, scheduled to run from late April to May 10, the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The fair will be held in what organizers described as a special context after UNESCO named the Moroccan capital “World Book Capital for 2026.” France has been named guest of honor for this year’s edition, after Morocco was guest of honor at the Paris book fair in 2025.

This year’s fair will also pay tribute to the 14th century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta through “a series of seminars about him, and meetings on travel literature,” as well as a dedicated pavilion.

Organizers said the space would include rare manuscripts and documents, maps tracing his journey from Morocco to China, documentary screenings and an interactive platform allowing visitors a “direct encounter with Ibn Battuta.”

Culture Minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid said the fair and Rabat’s World Book Capital year were “not just a protocol celebration” but “a victory for knowledge at the heart of a city that writes Morocco’s history.”

He said the broader aim was to expand access to culture and move reading “from closed spaces to cafes, squares and gardens,” as part of efforts to democratize knowledge and support publishing and digitization.

UNESCO Maghreb representative Eric Falt called the designation “a major recognition” for Rabat and said it reflected “a rich and organized program” involving multiple actors “to make reading accessible to all” and to “turn recognition into a lasting legacy.”

French Ambassador Christophe Lecourtier said France’s participation would include French, Moroccan and Franco Moroccan writers, adding that his country’s new culture minister would make her “first international trip” to Morocco for the fair. The French program will also focus on youth audiences and extend beyond Rabat to 12 Moroccan cities through the French cultural network, he said.

Organizers said the fair would host books from 61 countries and bring together 565 Moroccan speakers and 155 foreign participants for events on literature, translation, poetry, publishing and African cultural issues.