Ownership dispute casts doubt on future of Cairo bookstore

CAIRO — The Egyptian actor and tenor Hassan Kami, who died Dec. 14, has left behind a legal muddle involving the Orientalist, one of Cairo’s best-known bookstores. Among the 40,000 items in the store are a number of rare first editions and valuable manuscripts that Kami never offered for sale but now stand at the crux of a legal dispute over rightful owners and Egypt's cultural heritage.

Kami’s lawyer, Amr Ramadan, claims that the actor had sold him the bookstore and its contents a few years before his death, but Kami's family is contesting the validity of such a transaction. In addition, given the value and nature of some of the rarities in the shop, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the country's largest library, have stepped into the fray to protect what they see as Egypt's literary heritage.

Ramadan staked his claim to ownership three days after Kami's death. The lawyer re-opened the bookstore's doors on Dec. 17 and, according to local media reports, sold some of the most valuable books and manuscripts. That same day, the Kami family took legal action against Ramadan, accusing him of having taken advantage of Kami's advanced age to sign a sales contract for the actor's villa as well as the Orientalist. The family claims that the sale is therefore invalid.

Meanwhile, writers, intellectuals and politicians have been expressing their concern that Kami's heirs will sell off rare books, documents and manuscripts, resulting in some of them leaving the country. Several people, including the writer Yusuf al-Qaid, have argued that under Egypt’s Law on the Protection of Manuscripts, the rare books and manuscripts in the collection cannot simply be sold off, as they are part of the country's cultural heritage. Members of the parliament’s Cultural Committee called on the Ministry of Culture to protect the bookstore's contents before items disappear.