The fair was opened by the Secretary-General of the holy shrine of Imam Ali (peace be upon him); his eminence Sayed Nizar Habl Mateen, accompanied by the Secretary General of the holy shrine of Imam al-Kadhem and Imam al-Jawad (peace be upon both of them) Prof. Dr. Jamal al-Dabbagh and some of the officials at the holy shrine of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), and a high-level delegation from the al-Abbas's (p) Holy shrine headed by Head of its Public Relations Department; Sayed Hashem al-Musawi in addition to representatives of religious authorities and officials and representatives of the holy shrines and sites and a large gathering of religious, cultural, academic and social elites.
The opening ceremony that was held in the holy sanctuary of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), started by the recitation of verses of the Holy Quran, followed by the word of the Secretary-General of the holy shrine Sayed Nizar Habl Mateen, then the word of the Head of the Department of the Intellectual and Cultural Affairs Sheikh Sa'd al-Khaqani.
The al-Abbas's (p) Holy Shrine -as usual in every edition of this fair- had a distinct participation, as its participation was by the two Departments of Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and of the Knowledge and Islamic Humanitarian Affairs with diversified publications that vary between religious and academic, heritage and others, in addition to a special pavilion of the culture of childhood in the fair of childhood held within the book fair of Najaf in which the Division of childhood and Youth has participated.
For his part, the fair director; Mr Abd al-Razzaq al-Shaybani: "There is more than 50 thousand book titles in various practical, scientific, religious and political science and the pavilion for children. The fair will last for 10 days with the participation of 230 local, Arab and international publishing houses (with an increase of 30 publishing houses from the previous edition), coming from Kuwait, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Canada and Britain."