Early Arabic Printing
Movable Type & Lithography
An Exhibition
April 1st to June 30th
The Arabic and Persian books displayed in this exhibition are samples of early printed books in
the Arabic script. Some of them are printed by the movable type method which was invented by
Johann Gutenberg ca. 1439, others are lithographs, i.e. they were produced by a later method of
printing called lithography (from the two Greek words lithos “stone” + graphio “to write”).
Lithography, a precursor to offset printing, was invented by Alois Senefelder of Munich (17711834) in 1796. It uses a plate of stone with completely smooth surface to which is applied oil or
fat and gum arabic to divide the smooth surface into regions which accept the ink and regions
which reject it; hence, exploiting the reciprocally repellent properties of oil and water. It was
widely used in printing books written in the Arabic script instead of the movable type because it
is more convenient for the reproduction of the elegant handwritten manuscripts.
The role of the Arabs in the introduction of paper into Europe is very well documented. Paper
was invented by the Chinese in the 1st century CE. It was transmitted to the Arabs around the
middle of the 8th century CE. It is also well documented that the Chinese invented block printing
and the movable type several centuries before its use in Europe. However, the moveable type was
not much used by the Chinese due to the nature of the Chinese script.
The contribution of the Arabs, though, to the art of printing is still under investigation. Scholars
have found evidence that the Arabs have in deed known the art of block printing and have
produced written evidences in addition to artifacts of Arabic block printed materials. These
artifacts are scattered in museums and libraries in Europe and the United States and also in
private collections. Several studies have been written on this subject (Cf. the excellent study:
Enigmatic charms: medieval Arabic block printed amulets in American and European libraries
and museums / by Karl R. Schaefer. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2006).
The established tradition is that the moveable type and the wooden printing press which was
modeled after the wine and olive press was invented by the German goldsmith Johann Gutenberg
(1397?-1468). It is also said that Gutenberg was familiar with block printing and that he had
worked on copper engravings with an artist known only by the epithet “Master of the Playing
Cards.”
After learning to make paper and establishing paper mills throughout the Islamic Empire the
Arabs wrote most of their handwritten manuscripts on paper. This tradition continued until the
movable type printing press was widely introduced to the region after the French occupation of
Egypt in 1798. For one reason or another, block printing among the Arabs was not developed,
mostly, it seems, because those who practiced it were considered renegades, swindlers, sorcerers
and magicians who wrote magical amulets to sell them in mass to simple people. On the other
hand, block printing, however its degree of perfection, cannot rival the elegant calligraphy and
decorations used in handwritten manuscripts.
Soon after the invention of the movable type in Europe, European scholars started to utilize other
kinds of scripts. The first books to be printed in the Oriental languages in Europe were religious
texts. In 1455 the Hebrew Bible was printed in Ferrara (Italy). The first Arabic book to be printed
in movable type was also a religious book, Salat al-Sawa‘i bi-Hasab Taqs Kanisat alIskandariyah (‫“ )صالة السواعي بحسب طقس كنيسة اإلسكندرية‬Prayers of the Hours According to the
Liturgy of the Church of Alexandria.” It was printed in Fano (Italy). The Fano printing press was
established by Pope Julius II (1443-1513). The second book was the Book of Psalms (in Hebrew,
Greek, Arabic and Syriac with Latin translations). It was printed in 1516 in Genoa (Italy) at the
order of the French king François I (1494-1547). Soon after, Arabic printing presses were
established in other European cities; the most famous was the one founded by the Dutch scholar
and Orientalist Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624) in Leiden (the Netherland). In this press Erpenius
printed Arabic secular books, notably grammatical, poetical and historical books which he used in
his teaching. The first Koran was printed in 1530 in Venice (Italy). Commentaries on the Koran
by al-Baydawi (d. 1286?), al-Zamakhshari (1075-1144) and al-Suyuti (1445-1505) were printed
in Padova (Italy) in 1632 with an introduction by the Catholic priest and scholar Louis (or
Ludovico) Maracci (1612-1700).
The establishment of the Arabic printing presses in the Ottoman Empire was delayed due to the
fear of the sultans that some biased persons might tamper with the sacred religious texts. Hence,
in 1485 Sultan Bayezid II (1447 or 8-1512) issued a royal decree prohibiting the use of printed
books. A similar decree was issued in 1515 by the Sultan Selim I (1470-1520). However, these
prohibitions were not applied to books printed by Dhimmis (or People of the Book, i.e. Christians
and Jews). Hence, Presses for printing Hebrew books were founded at the end of the 15 th century
in Constantinople and other cities in the Ottoman Empire.
The first Arabic press to be established in the Ottoman Empire was founded in Constantinople,
ca. 1720 during the reign of the Sultan Ahmed III (1673-1736) by the endeavors of Ahmet Efendi
Celebi (‫ )أحمد أفندي چلبي‬and his son Sait (‫ )سعيد‬who enlisted the expertise of the Hungarian convert
to Islam, the talented artisan and expert printer, İbrahim Muteferrika (‫( )إبراهيم متفرقة‬1674?-1745).
The first Arabic book to be printed in this press was a translation into Ottoman Turkish of the
Arabic lexicon al-Sihah (‫ )الصحاح‬of al-Jawhari (d. 1003?) in the year 1728.
However, it seems that the Greek Melkite Christian community of Aleppo (Syria) founded an
Arabic press to print their religious and liturgical texts at the beginning of the 18th century. The
first books to be printed were the Psalms and the Gospels (in 1706) both translated into Arabic by
the Bishop ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl al-Antaki (‫( )عبد هللا بن الفضل األنطاكي‬d. 1052). The second press
in Aleppo was established by the Maronite Church in 1857 by the endeavors of the Bishop Yusuf
Matar (‫)يوسف مطر‬.
In Lebanon several Arabic printing presses were also established. The first was in the town of alShuwayr near Beirut, by the endeavors of the scholar Abd Allah ibn Zakhariya Zakhir ( ‫عبد هللا بن‬
‫( )زخريا زاخر‬1684-1748) who was originally a goldsmith from the city of Aleppo (Syria). The
second was the famous American Press which was established in Malta and then transferred to
Beirut by the Protestant missionary and Yale Graduate (class of 1821), the Revered Eli Smith
(1801-1857) who started working on the translation of the Bible into Arabic. The translation was
completed after his death by his colleague Cornelius Van Dyck, (1818-1895).
In Egypt, the first printing press started with Napoleon’s campaign in 1798 in which were printed
leaflets and pamphlets of decrees and ordinances of Napoleon (1769-1821). However, when
Muhammad Ali Basha (‫( (محمد علي باشا‬1769-1849) became the ruler of Egypt in 1805 he resumed
the work of the press in 1819 and named it “al-Matba‘ah al-Ahliyah” (‫“ )المطبعة األهلية‬The National
Press”. The press was then transferred to the district of Bulaq on the Nile from whence its name
“Matba‘at Bulaq” (‫)مطبعة بوالق‬, i.e. the Bulaq Press. The Bulaq Press produced magnificent works
not only in the traditional Arabic/Islamic sciences but also in all aspects of modern sciences
which were translated into Arabic from the different European languages by competent Egyptian
scholars and translators.