Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing was founded in 1975 by Ismail Abdel Hakam. Al Arabi began by publishing books on subjects including politics, history, and mass communication, as well as specialised books in arts, poetry, engineering, architecture, and memoirs. Al Arabi has published over 1000 titles in all fields, especially mass communication, library, history, arts, literature, and children books. Ismail Abdel Hakam’s children, Ranya Ismail Bakr and Sherif Ismail Bakr, now run the company and publish Arabic-language authors as well as books in translation from around the world including a successful collection of crime fiction.