Between 4 and 14 May 2016, three researchers of the Avicenna Institute, Rozina Dombi, András Barati and István Lánczky participated in the 29th Tehran International Book Fair. The exhibition, which covers an area of 120,000 square metres, is the largest cultural event in Iran, with more than 2,500 Iranian and 600 foreign publishers represented. The book fair provided an opportunity to purchase primary and secondary sources in the field of Iranian Studies (and to a lesser extent Arabic Studies) that are hardly possible to come by anywhere else. The book fair was preceded by several weeks of preparatory work, during which the colleagues of the Avicenna Institute collected and organised the Persian and Arabic books missing from the Institute’s library, based on the online catalogue of the book fair. The event proved to be an excellent opportunity to establish and improve contacts with major publishers in Iranian and Arabic Studies, and to acquire rare book editions and hard-to-find sources. The researchers visited the Shahid Beheshti University and the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in order to establish and maintain productive relations with our Institute. Our colleagues were also able to conduct their own research, albeit briefly, at the Golestân Library and Archive, and the Majles Library.