Idris Mears takes you around the Islamic world in 3,000 titles
- 09 Nov 2023
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
One of the oldest participants in Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) – so old an entrant he cannot pinpoint the exact year he began taking part in it – is Idris Mears and his company, Blackstone and Holywell.
Mears reveals the secret behind the company’s name: he chose it since it is recognisable to Muslims, with Blackstone standing for the Kabaa and Holywell meaning Zamzam, the well located within the Sacred Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Mears has brought around 3,000 titles to the fair, and subjects include books on “the breadth of Islamic studies”, according to him. “I am not propagating any sect of madhab or school,” Mears says. “My collection is all embracing; I am only giving information, serving the needs of readers and perhaps of researchers.”
He has also stocked tomes by Orientalists, or those who unfortunately represented colonised countries, including those from the Muslim world, in a stereotyped way that is now regarded as showing a colonialist attitude. This is because, Mears says with a wicked gleam in his eye “good people need to read bad books”. People should also be able to give a reply to the arguments of Orientalists, and unless they know what is said, how will they reply?, he asks rhetorically. “I am a bookseller and readers make their opinion, not me”, he concludes.
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According to him, a bookseller is like a doctor, who provides remedies and salves for people’s souls. “I am a book doctor!” he says happily. At the B & H stalls, one can find books mainly in English – a language Mears is familiar with – and also a smattering of those in French and a few in Arabic. “In England,” he says, “the book season is during April – November. I go to places depending on where I find which books. This is also when I sell books. The other months, I am travelling to find books.”
“The flow of books is like the flow of blood,” he observes. “You absorb nutrients through knowledge and hope it reaches where needed.” SIBF is an income generator for him, since it raises more revenue for him than from other fairs. Mears accepted Islam in 1973, having studied English literature at Oxford University and later acquiring a Masters in history at the University of East Anglia. With half a century of experience in the publishing industry, he was director of Diwan Press, the pioneering publisher of English translations of classical Islamic texts, especially on Sufism. He has edited the seminal editions of the Muwatta of Imam Malik, sponsored by the late Sheikh Zayed and the Shifa of Qadi ‘Iyad. In the 1990s, he helped develop the distribution in USA for emerging UK-based Islamic publishers and in the 2000s, he has focused more on educational activities, serving as the director of the Association of Muslim Schools UK.
It was during sometime early 1970 that a person came to him and said “this book is your book.” It was called The Book of Strangers, written in 1972 by Ian Dallas who accepted Islam in 1967, and eventually became known as Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al Sufi. The book was about a man who leaves the city for the desert to pursue a more spiritual path. It made Mears realise he was also in search of that kind of knowledge. This led him to embrace Islam. Since 2016, he has lived in Dubai.
In 1998, he established the Jumeirah Islamic Learning Centre in Dubai; it was a cultural assembly conceived to introduce visitors to Islam. He also took part that year, the first time in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. “The Sharjah International Book Fair,” he says, “is the project of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah and Member of the Supreme Council. His Highness takes a personal interest in it.” According to Mears, the fair looks after the needs of both sellers and readers. “It is not a vanity event,” he notes. Mears finds more South Americans coming to SIBF and deplores the negligible European presence there as yet.
He is not into the Net or Social Media; he is from the old school, someone who depends on word of mouth, in his business. But this may change in future, if only for the sake of books. “I mostly get the same customers and visitors,” he says. “Perhaps they know me personally and also know they may find something unique here. It is also like almost every year, I build three or four special relationships. Out of the thousand or three thousand people who pass by my shop, two or three spend time here and become close friends. And as a doctor, if I introduce something to somebody that changes their lives, I will be quite satisfied.”
Mears, never one to let go of a telling remark, said he observed that school girls were more interested in books than the boys. While the girls took time off to browse books, comment on them and ask questions, the boys seemed more interested in getting into book fights, involving throwing books at each other, than taking interest in their contents. “The boys are shuffling and pushing the books,” he said, “I ask them to come back when they have a PhD!”