Our story
In 1998, I received a heartfelt dedication from my father on the first page of a book titled Literature and the Child. In it, he wrote of his dream that I would one day achieve something meaningful in the field of children’s literature. At the time, I never imagined how prophetic that small note would become.
Two decades later, in 2018, after years of working in publishing, I decided to take a leap of faith and establish my own publishing house. I named it Alia.
In the early months, I longed to be seen—for Alia to matter—but the silence was overwhelming. At the same time, my father was very ill. I paused everything else to be by his side during his hospitalization. It was during this time that I met two wonderful nurses from outside Cairo. Wanting to offer them something in return, I thought they could help me deliver books around the country. Even then, nothing changed. Until one morning, shortly after my father had returned home and begun to recover, I woke up to find my Facebook account flooded with notifications. I thought I had been hacked. But no—they were all book orders.
That was the real birthday of Alia.
From there, Alia began to grow. And just when the story had come full circle, the dedication from my father returned—but this time, the roles had reversed. I had just completed the manuscript for a new book and was preparing to send it to the illustrator when my father’s health declined again. I was in Copenhagen, waiting three long days for PCR test results to travel back to him. Sadly, he passed away before I could reach him.
In those painful hours, a sentence came to me: "To those worth traveling to". It became my dedication to him—a final note of love and longing. One year later, that very book, dedicated to his memory, won the prestigious Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature.
The award ceremony was held in Sharjah, UAE. The following year, another Alia title received a second award from Sharjah. From those two small dedications—his to me, and mine to him—Alia Publishing found its heart.
Today, with over 70 books published and having reached more than 10,000 children in Egypt, we are beginning a new chapter in the UAE. We come with the same dream that started it all:
To revive the joy of re-reading in Arabic and to create books that live in children's hearts.
Welcome to Alia Publishing.
Welcome to Alia Publishing House.
Our mission
We create and publish Arabic children’s books distinguished by creativity in text, illustration, and design, ensuring they reflect our cultural and human values. We believe that reading is not just a skill, but an experience filled with joy and discovery, and we strive to bring this experience to as many children as possible, in collaboration with parents, schools, and institutions across the Arab world and beyond.
