Ottoman Endorsements of Printing in 18th-Century Istanbul (original) (raw)
This chapter analyses Ottoman attitudes towards printing and argues that at the beginning of the 18th century there was still considerable mistrusts towards this novel technology, coming especially from religious circles.
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Hamsa. Journal of Judaic and Islamic Studies, 2024
It was only in 1727 that the first Turkish-Muslim printing house was established by Ibrahim Müteferrika with the support of Sultan Ahmed III. It came into existence in Istanbul at the beginning of the eighteenth century during a peaceful interlude known as the Tulip Eraa brief period characterized by increasing consumerism, religious tolerance, interest in philosophy and openness to the West. Many reasons have been put forward for this late adoption: Sultanic firmans, opposition from scribes, lack of a market for printed texts, and the difficulty in printing Arabic script. What forms of mobility in print material and technology existed before 1727 in the Ottoman Empire, and how did they interact with the creation of a Turkish-Muslim printing press during the Tulip Era? It was Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's incunable of 1493-'Four Rows'that marked the inauguration of printing of any type in the Ottoman Empire. This text will be briefly analyzed, along with the ensuing centuries-long Hebrew and Ladino print traditions, and finally their continuation through the Tulip Era. This article will frame the historical development of Jewish print culture in Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century while situating it within the international marketplace. The exchanges between the intercontinental Jewish print culture, the first Turkish-Muslim printing house, and European intellectuals emphasize interconnectedness as well as the reimagination of the Tulip Era not as the initial thrust of Ottoman 'modernization' but rather the amalgamation of previous technological and socioeconomic forces. Using Ottoman Jewish printing as a comprehensive example, 'modernization' in the Ottoman Empire is shown to have occurred over many centuries, with its achievement the result of a blending of different coexisting cultures and trends.
J.J. Witkam, Stories about Early Ottoman Printing
İlim ve İrfan Yolunda Bir Hezarfen: Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu’na Armağan = A Festschrift in Honor of Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, editors Hatice Aynur et al. (İstanbul: Ötüken, 2021), pp. 517-532.
* The subject of this contribution to the festschrift for my old friend Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu is partly derived from my valedictory lecture to Leiden University on December 10, 2010, entitled Het einde van het islamitische handschrift. Verhalen over de overgang van handschrift naar druk. The Dutch text was published in Leiden in 2012 by my own publishing company Ter Lugt Press.
The political economy of mass printing: Legitimacy and technological change in the Ottoman empire
2012
New technologies have not always been greeted with full enthusiasm. Although the Ottomans were quick to adopt advancements in military technology, they waited almost three centuries to sanction printing in Ottoman Turkish (in Arabic characters). Printing spread relatively rapidly throughout Europe following the invention of the printing press in 1450 despite resistance by interest groups and temporary restrictions in some countries.
The Basic Development of Jewish Printing in the Ottoman Period
BELLEK International Journal of History and Cultural Studies , 2023
The first Jewish printing activities in the Ottoman period started with the initiatives of the Sephardic Jews who had to leave Spain due to the exile. Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, who were forced to immigrate from Poland and the surrounding areas, wanted to create works of their own religion and culture by continuing their printing activities in Thessaloniki, Edirne, Izmir and Istanbul. Even though the first Jewish printing house was established in 1493 during the Ottoman period, intensive publication of works only occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries. The first Jewish journalistic activities came to the fore in Izmir in 1842. After that, they spread to Istanbul and intensified in both cities. This study aims to deal with Jewish printing activities, which existed in the Ottoman period, within the scope of political and social processes. In the article covering the period between 1493 and 1922, the printing activities of the Jews were examined using the document analysis method. As a result, in spite of intermittent pauses in printing activities during the Ottoman period, it still experienced a successful growth over time. The Ottoman government’s permission for the Jews, as a non-Muslim nation, to conduct printing activities was a socially and commercially important move, especially when Muslims in the region were not using the printing press. The constant presence of religious themes in Jewish works can be attributed to the attempt to preserve their religious identities due to their exile from Spain, being a minority in the places they migrated to, and the fear of annihilation. The fact that they turned to literature and science in the works they published in the following process can be expressed as both the decrease in their sense of threat over time and an effort to assess and utilize the deep-rooted culture they received from Spain.
THE POLITIC MEANING OF OTTOMAN PRINTING HOUSE
1699'dan sonraki yıllarda gösterdiği kurumsallaşma çabalarıyla Osmanlı devletiyle ilgilenmek ve onu bu çabalarıyla tanımlamaya çalışmak neredeyse genel bir yaklaşım haline gelmiştir. Üstelik bu çabalarin doğru anlaşıldığina ilişkin verilerin de yetersiz olduğu belirtilmelidir. Devletin toprak kaybetmeye başladıktan sonra yeni polItik araçlar geliştirmesinin kaçinılmazlığinı yüzünü Batıya dönmüş olmakla değerlendirmek bu yanlış anlaşılmanin yol başıdır. Karlofça sonrası ve bütün bir XVIII. yüzyıl boyunca izlenen politikalarin küçülmeye karşın mevziini güçlenerek koruma yönünde olduğunu görmek zor değildir. Hristiyan Batı dünyası karşısında Müslüman Doğu dünyasının koruyuculuğu bilincini muhafaza ettiği sürece bir Osmanlı Batılılaşmasindan söz etmenin anlamlı olduğu söylenemez. Osmanlının Batılılaşma yönünde değil Batıya karşı güçlenme temelinde matbaa ile yöneldiği girişim bu yöndeki girişimlerin ilki olmasa bile ilginç bir örneğidir. ABSTRACT By its turning into institution efforts shown in the years after 1699, concerning with Ottoman Empire and trying to define it with its these efforts has become almost a general approach. Furthermore; it must also be clarified that
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