Around the 1440s, Johannes Gutenberg invented
the movable type printing press for the Latin Alphabet. A few years later, he printed the Bible in
Latin which led to a dramatic explosion in the usage of printing press around Europe. According to one estimate, by the year 1500,
around 1,000 printing presses were already functioning in Europe. It revolutionized the storage and transmission
of knowledge since making copies of books was much easier, faster and cheaper. By the year 1800, more than a billion copies
of books and manuscripts had been printed in Europe. However, it was around the end of that century
that we saw printing really take off in the Islamic world, more than four hundred years
after being invented. So, why did it take so long for the Printing
Press to be used by the Islamic World? This video is brought to you by, well, you
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it. Back to the video. The reason the Islamic world adopted printing
so late wasn’t, contrary to popular belief, because of an Islamic hatred for technology,
as Islamophobes often like to say. Muslims had worked on scientific breakthroughs
pretty much since the start of Islam, in an era commonly known as the Golden Age of Islam. It was also not because of Muslim aversion
to European Products. Muslims had been quick to embrace other things
coming out of the western world such as Tobacco which was so common, in the Ottoman Empire,
by the year 1600 that it was banned in 1633 and then made legal and taxed a decade later. Another example of this is that paper making
had declined in the Middle East because of the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. Before this, Baghdad had been the world’s
leading producer of paper. Although, now, Islamic World’s paper production
was pretty low and so, the Muslims started using European paper. The earliest known copy of the Quran written
on European paper is dated to around 1340. By then Baghdad and Damascus were starting
to return as major hubs of paper making but Tamerlane sacked them both and effectively
ended the industry of paper making in these two cities. So, what was the reason then? Not that long after Gutenberg’s invention
of the printing-press, Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire issued an edict, in 1485,
regarding printing in his realm. Non-Muslim communities would have complete
freedom to print whatever they wanted in their languages. However, Arabic and other languages that used
the Arabic script would not be printed by either a Muslim or a non-Muslim. Although, importation of printed Arabic books
from outside the Ottoman Empire was allowed. The first printing-press in the Islamic World
was set up in Constantinople by Jewish refugees from Spain in 1493. Armenian and Syrian Christians were printing
in large numbers as well. So, why did the Sultan keep Muslims out of
printing? It wasn’t because he was stupid or intolerant. Rather, I think it might have been the contrary. Bayezid and his advisers were probably smart
enough to understand the disruptive power this new technology possessed. After all, only a few decades after Bayezid’s
edict, Europe and specifically, the Catholic Church, were shaken by the Protestant Reformation,
in which the printing press played a vital role. We’ll return to Bayezid’s reasons behind
banning it but first, let’s take a look at some other problems with printing in the
Islamic world. Okay, so, the first problem that comes to
mind is just the difficulty of printing the Arabic script. For example, let’s take the character “Meem”. Depending on its place in a word, it can have
one of four different shapes. So, you’d have a much higher count of typefaces. Although, in reality, that wasn’t much of
a problem. This photo right here is from the first ever
printed Quran. It was printed in the Arabic language, around
1537 in Venice by Alessandro Paganini, to be sold in Ottoman Constantinople but it was
full of errors so, not only was it a commercial failure, Muslims who saw it got very angry. His print shop was burnt either by the Pope
or by angry Muslims, or the more likely answer, it just ran out of business. Another cool fact, the first printed translation
of the Quran was printed in Latin by Theodor Bibliander. It was published in 1543 and the introduction
was written by Martin Luther himself. Luther believed that a Latin translation would
reinforce European Christian belief of Islam being false. If the Muslims were to accept printing, obviously,
it would have to start with religious books starting with the Quran, after all there was
a reason that the first widely printed book, in Europe, was the Bible. However, the Quran is not the same as the
Bible. It’s often said that the counterpart to
Jesus in Islam isn’t Muhammad, it’s the Quran, as a representation of God. Muslims believe the Quran to be the literal
word of God as dictated to Muhammad. It isn’t meant to be read but rather, it
is meant to be heard and recited out loud. The lack of importance given to writing can
be estimated by the fact that the Arabic script has vowel markers that are mostly not used
so, someone unfamiliar with a word would have trouble reading it even if they can read the
Arabic script. All written copies were meant to store it
and keep it safe from corruption but to understand it, you had to listen to an expert reciting
it. Even today, there’s a huge emphasis on the
recitation of the Quran. People recite it out loud from memory or from
a printed copy. If it was to be written, it had to be carefully
copied by a skilled calligrapher. When you think of Islamic art, you always
think about calligraphy. Muslims took a lot of pride in their regional
styles of calligraphy and illustrations. A rich tradition of book writing had appeared
in the Islamic world since the transmission of paper making technology from China in the
middle of the eighth century. Even today when you enter a mosque or other
religious buildings, you see a ton of calligraphy there. People did, and still do, copy the Quran by
hand as a sign of piety and prestige. Even kings did that. So, a soulless machine making copies of the
Quran was seen as taking a step back from this rich tradition, a sentiment that we can
relate to in modern times as well. This had been cemented in the minds of the
Ottoman Empire by the terribly printed first Quran in 1537. Another reason for why printing was not adopted
by Muslims is that it was simply not seen as solving any problems in the Islamic World. By this time, the Muslims had an established
tradition of education. The Islamic education system was also not
reliant on books. A scholar, not a book, was the resource that
those seeking knowledge had to go to. The written word was merely a tool for experts
to help them remember rather than for novices to learn from. This is why famous scholars such as Ibn Arabi
and al-Bukhari traveled so much. Books were usually copied by rich patron who
had libraries that could be accessed by scholars they gave patronage to. Hence, the demand of books was not very high. Other than scholars, administrator kept records
but to accommodate them, the 20,000 to 90,000 scribes in Constantinople (in the eighteenth
century) were more than enough. Also, the overall output of the Islamic World,
in terms of research was much lower now than it had been during the Golden Age. It was also much lower than Europe which was
going through its renaissance. Also, calligraphy was a huge industry and
at one point, calligraphers even marched to the royal palace in Constantinople, carrying
a coffin with their pens and ink inside, to protest against printing. So, their economic well being and lobbying
was also a factor. So, overall, there was no demand for large
number of books. Like we know, without demand, even the best
products might fail. Looking at you, Prince of Persia video game
franchise. We had seen something like this earlier as
well. When paper was becoming popular in the Islamic
world, its popularity was primarily because of its usage in the caliphate’s administrative
structure and because the Quran was written on it. However, the Jews living in the caliphate
did not adopt paper as quickly as the Muslims had because Jewish law required the Torah
scroll and other traditional items to be made of parchment. Paper was only used for rabbinic publications,
commentaries, and private copies of the Bible and also, secular books. So, when printing was on the rise in Europe
in the second half of the fifteenth century, there was concern that with the widespread
usage of printing, publishing books would be easier and hence, heretical ideas could
spread more easily. This debate existed in both Islamic and Christian
parts of the world. So, the religious establishment wanted to
preserve their version of legitimate Islam. Another thing they wanted to preserve was
their own status. Of course, books being printed and make affordable
for the common folk would have broken the monopoly of the religious elites on interpretation
of religion for the public as the public would have direct access to religious book. Similarly, it could also threaten political
establishment as any anti-state propaganda could spread more easily. So, the printed word had the potential to
shake everything up, from religion to government. This was probably the reason why Sultan Bayezid
II banned printing in 1485. The first printing press in the Islamic World
operated by a Muslim was by a Hungarian convert named Ibrahim Müteferrika in Constantinople. He had previously been a diplomat and had
traveled across Europe. In 1726, he wrote a treatise called The Usefulness
of Printing and presented it to Ottoman government. He writes… Books are also a tool for perfecting the nation
and the state, a method of increasing the majesty of the empire, and of becoming the
protector and preserver, until the last day, of arts and sciences and recorded events from
the miscalculations of man… If there are numerous books on history, astronomy,
logic, the affairs of the state and nation, and geography, this altogether will create
tremendous educational benefit… [Books are a good] way of creating safety
from sudden catastrophes and the changes arising in the poor memory of men. [In the days of] the Abbasids, the books and
compositions of the scholars and writers were dumped into the Tigris [by the Mongols] and
their writings washed away. By this time, the Islamic World did have a
problem that printing could help in solving. That problem was European dominance. The Ottoman Empire was starting to decline
and was looking to Europe to understand how they were rising up above them. So, the Sultan, in 1727, issued an edict allowing
Muslims to operate the printing press as long as they don’t print religious texts. It was probably because of calligraphers and
the clergy that religious texts were excluded from the edict. It would be another century before a religious
text is published in Constantinople in 1818. In 1803, the first complete and widely accepted
Quran was printed by the Tsarist Russian city of Kazan for Russia’s Muslim population. The next chapter in the story of Arabic printing
came when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798. He was, as he claimed, on a mission to civilize
the Egyptians so, he brought with him a French printing press and an Arabic printing press. The French one was obviously to communicate
with his troops while the Arabic ones was to communicate with the locals. While his Arabic declarations had glaring
grammatical mistakes, the Egyptians saw how the printing press had helped the French communicate
and coordinate. So, after they left in 1801, Muhammad Ali
Pasha, the Ottoman Governor (and de facto ruler) of Egypt started using it for his own
purposes. The people in his government who operated
the printing press were actually sent to Italy to be trained. That’s how serious Muhammad Ali Pasha was. The invention of lithographic printing by
Alois Senefelder in 1796 really simplified the process of printing Arabic. Not only did it not need typefaces but it
was also able to preserve calligraphy and illustrations the way the author had intended. The first lithograph press in the Islamic
World, as far as I can tell, was in Morocco where a private citizen had bought it but
religious scholars saw its usage and argued in the royal court in the favor of using it. On the opposite side of the Islamic World,
India had seen the printing press pretty much since it established direct contact with Europe. Jesuits had operated a press there since 1556. The British East India Company had its own
presses. However, the first press owned by a Muslim
came around in 1819 when Nawab Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah of Awadh sponsored one. Unlike the Ottoman Empire, the Nawab immediately
started printing religious books. Five years later, the British East India Company
gifted a few lithographic presses to the Bombay School Book and School Society which started
printing books in local languages. Lithographic Printing boomed in the Indian
Subcontinent. The print capital of India, Lucknow had over
a dozen presses by 1848, all operated by Muslims. The most printed language in India, after
English, was Urdu, the language primarily spoken by Muslims. Now, the reason that the Muslims became pioneers
of printing in India has something of a similar theme to the rise of printing in Europe that
happened almost 400 years earlier. It happened in the context of religious reformation. By the 19th century some 70 to 90 per cent
of the Islamic World was living under European rule. The religious elite saw the need for reformation
to bring the Muslims together and fight the colonizers. We saw many Revivalist and Reformist movements
being born in the Islamic World during the 19th century. All of them used printing to spread their
message. Also, the Quran was being translated into
local languages throughout the Islamic World. In the 19th century, there were 12 attempts
to translate the Quran into Urdu alone. None of them were widely accepted. Along with books, pamphlets and newspapers
were being published in large quantities to spread propaganda against the colonizers. So to answer the question, the Islamic World
didn’t reject printing, it simply didn’t think it could be useful. There was simply no problem that the Muslims
thought could be solved by the Printing Press. Then colonization happened and there was now
a problem. In many ways, we’re still in the middle
of solving that problem. The so-called “decolonization” is still
underway and Islam is still being reformed. That’s why, while Muslims were slow to adopt
the Printing Press, we were pretty quick to adopt the Internet. For better or worse, you can find all kinds
of religious scholars using the internet to spread their message. What happens next remains to be seen. See you next time. Don’t forget to subscribe and press the
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