{"id":128,"date":"2019-07-16T20:46:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T20:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/linguafranca\/?page_id=128"},"modified":"2023-03-21T20:31:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T20:31:29","slug":"issue-5-2019-ottoman-print-culture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/linguafranca\/issue-5-2019-ottoman-print-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 5 (2019) Ottoman Print Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"The\u00a0fifth issue of Lingua Franca: The History of the Book in Translation\u00a0<\/em>presents a selection of four articles on the history of manuscripts and printed\u00a0books in the Ottoman Empire. It should be stated for readers who are not\u00a0familiar with the Ottoman cultural field that the selection of articles\u00a0reflects only the history of books written in the official language of the\u00a0empire, Turkish, in Arabic script. However it must be noted that until the\u00a0establishment of the Turkish republic in 1920, Ottoman book culture reflected\u00a0the multi-religious and multi-ethnic identity of the empire, with books\u00a0circulating in Arabic, Farsi, Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, and Ladino\u00a0(Judeo-Spanish), as well as Turkish: local printers worked with Arabic,\u00a0Armenian, Greek and Hebrew type. While the official palace language was Turkish\u00a0written in Arabic script, it was not uncommon for prominent figures from\u00a0minority communities to write in Turkish using their own Armenian or Greek\u00a0alphabet for subjects other than religion.\n\n\n\n\n\nCanonical discourse on the history\u00a0of printing in the Ottoman Empire argues that print technology arrived in the\u00a0Ottoman region very late, indicating the Ottomans\u2019 \u201cbelatedness\u201d compared to\u00a0European empires. However, the major shortcoming of this discourse is that historians\u00a0focused solely on the Muslim community and the imperial elite but did not take\u00a0into consideration what was going on among minority communities. Print\u00a0technology in fact arrived in Ottoman territory towards the end of the\u00a0fifteenth century, right after its invention in Europe: it was in use by the Judaeo-Spanish community as\u00a0early as 1493 and by the Armenian community in 1567. The Greek community\u00a0founded the first printing house in 1627. Non-Muslim communities only printed\u00a0religious books for teaching purposes.\n\nIt is true that the dominant\u00a0community of the empire and the palace seemed to ignore the new technology\u00a0until 1727, almost three hundred years after its uptake in Europe. Two main\u00a0reasons account for the attitude of the Ottoman palace. The first was the low\u00a0demand for books in general. Ottoman society had a strong oral and verbal\u00a0culture, meaning books were not a necessity for learning or transmitting\u00a0information. The model of education in madrasahs[1] <\/a>was based on\u00a0 lectures by a professor.\u00a0One basic function of printing \u2013 making books available for a wide readership \u2013\nwas therefore simply not valid for much of Ottoman society. The second reason\u00a0was, as Rifaat Ali Abou-el-Haj\u00a0indicated in his book on the Ottoman Empire,[2], <\/a>that the Ottomans were selective in their uptake of technology, strategically\u00a0adopting those which would be of benefit. Not until the nineteenth century did\u00a0Ottoman Muslims feel the need for printing technology or widespread access to\u00a0printed books.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn 1727, the Ottoman courtier Ibrahim\u00a0M\u00fcteferrika established the first Turkish-Muslim printing house with the\u00a0support of the Sultan Ahmed III. However, the venture proved a failure,\u00a0printing just seventeen books, all educational in character. As stated in Orlin\u00a0Sabev\u2019s major work, \u0130brahim M\u00fcteferrika ya da \u0130lk Osmanl\u0131 Matbaa Ser\u00fcveni<\/em>[3], <\/a>on this first Ottoman printing press and its founder, the main reason for this\u00a0failure was the project’s cost. Although the venture was supported directly by\u00a0the palace, the cost of paper was too high as it had to be imported. As a\u00a0result, even though the customers were high-ranking courtiers, military\u00a0officers and the like, the books were beyond their budgets. The second reason\u00a0was that even if customers had been able to afford the books, they did not find\u00a0the printed page visually appealing. The plainly printed books, devoid of\nornamentation, did not fit the image of what a book should look like for the\u00a0Ottoman elites.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe latter half of the nineteenth\u00a0century witnessed a breakthrough in terms of Ottoman print culture. It is no\u00a0coincidence that the blossoming of print culture overlapped with the reign of\u00a0Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II. Abd\u00fclhamid II, a highly controversial figure in Ottoman\u00a0history, was the first Ottoman ruler to imagine a new type of nation and make\u00a0an attempt at nation-building. The key reference here is Benedict Anderson’s\u00a0groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting study, Imagined Communities<\/em>,[4]<\/a>and its claim that print capitalism and the novel as a literary genre were\u00a0two basic means of nation-building. Another nineteenth-century tool for\u00a0creating a homogeneous society was education. The second volume of Theodore\u00a0Zeldin’s France 1848\u20131945<\/em>[5] <\/a>defines the nineteenth century as an age of education. Zeldin argues that\u00a0empires across the world, including France, Germany, England, Japan, and China,\u00a0started standardizing public education and extending it to wider sections of\u00a0society. The Ottoman empire was no exception. For Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II, the\u00a0road map was education and the vehicle was printed textbooks. To this end, he\u00a0established schools throughout the country at every level. Primary schools,\u00a0secondary schools, and schools for vocational education were all included to\u00a0the program. A total of ten thousand new state schools were established during\u00a0his reign. There were also private schools serving individual communities and\u00a0missionary schools. Given the very limited numbers of schools before the\u00a0Hamidian period, this was a huge initiative. According to Ak\u015fin Somel and\u00a0Benjamin Fortna[6]<\/a>,\u00a0Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II used all the means of the state to open new schools across\u00a0the Empire and to provide them with teachers and teaching materials. He also\u00a0modernized teaching methods, though curricula remained conservative. Creating a\u00a0homogeneous society meant using the same teaching material in all schools,\u00a0which was only possible with state-controlled printed textbooks. As Brinkley\u00a0Messick states in The Calligraphic State<\/em>,[7]<\/a>Abd\u00fclhamid II was mesmerized\u00a0by the idea of printing technology. Printing became a profitable and prestigious\u00a0profession. Many private printing companies were founded at this time, some\u00a0with direct support from the palace, such as those of Ahmet \u0130hsan and Eb\u00fczziya\u00a0Tevfik.\n\n\n\n\n\nOne small note on Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid\u00a0II: he was not only a big supporter of the printing press but a keen reader of\u00a0detective novels. In their article, \u201cII. Abd\u00fclhamid\u2019in Polisiye Roman Merak\u0131 ve\u00a0\u00c7evirtti\u011fi Polisiye Romanlar\u201d[8] <\/a>(Abd\u00fclhamid II’s Enthusiasm for Detective Novels and the Detective Novels\u00a0Translated for Him), Erol \u00dcyepazarc\u0131 and Ra\u015fit \u00c7ava\u015f studied the index catalogs\u00a0of his private library and calculated that Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II had almost 505\u00a0titles translated into Turkish, mostly by a group of translators hired to work\u00a0in the palace itself. His enthusiasm for detective fiction, especially Sherlock\u00a0Homes, was so strong that there were rumors about him meeting Sir Arthur Conan\u00a0Doyle. Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid even became the protagonist of a detective novel, Abd\u00fclhamit ve Sherlock Holmes, <\/em>by Yervant Odyan, published in 1912. The novel was highly\u00a0scathing of Abd\u00fclhamid II, perfectly reflecting the political atmosphere of the\u00a01910s. It has frequently been speculated that the sultan’s love for detective\u00a0novels was both the reason for and result of his paranoia.\n\nFour\u00a0articles originally published in Turkish have been selected for this issue of Lingua\u00a0Franca: The History of the Book in Translation <\/em>to reflect various characteristics of Ottoman book culture. Christoph Neumann focuses on the relation between readers and books in early modern Ottoman manuscript culture, arguing that the book as an object was attributed a degree of symbolic value which defined the reader’s attitude towards it. A number of canonical works were considered a must for an intellectual\u2019s library or a prestigious gift for a senior officer. In turn, T\u00fcl\u00fcn De\u011firmenci presents the experiences of more ordinary readers. Drawing on reader\u2019s notes jotted in the margins of a group of manuscripts, she teases out how books were read and circulated in Ottoman society. \u0130smail Er\u00fcnsal draws our attention to books as commercial objects. His article focuses on the transition period from manuscripts to printed books and shows that there was a strict division between their trade, although to the modern mind, they were all simply books. \u00d6zg\u00fcr T\u00fcresay\u2019s article is about a prominent figure in Ottoman print culture. T\u00fcresay’s article not only gives a brief panorama of the rich Ottoman print culture of the late nineteenth century but also studies its social and political ramifications: as stated in T\u00fcresay\u2019s article, although Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II was pro-print culture, he also applied a strict regime of censorship against printing companies and newspaper owners.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe locations in \u0130smail Er\u00fcnsal\u2019s\u00a0article can be identified in the maps below. The first map is a broad view of\u00a0Constantinople dating from 1922. The second map dates from 1922. On the left,\u00a0the small triangle-like establishment next to Bayez\u0131d Mosque is Sahaflar\u00a0\u00c7ar\u015f\u0131s\u0131 (Book Market). In the middle, the short snake-like street is Bab-\u0131 Ali\u00a0(Sublime Porte) Street, the heart of the printing press and media in the\u00a0Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. The street name has today been changed to\u00a0Ca\u011falo\u011flu, as Bab-\u0131 Ali (Sublime Porte) was a direct reference to the Ottoman\u00a0reign. Ca\u011falo\u011flu street still houses newspapers and printing houses.\n\n\n\n\n\nNeslihan\u00a0Demirkol\nGuest editor, Lingua Franca: The History\u00a0of the Book in Translation <\/em>5\n\nVisiting post-doctoral researcher at Islamic Studies\nInstitute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich\nSwiss Government Excellence Scholarship Holder for 2018-2019\n\nResearch Associate, Project CMO\nInstitute for Arabic and Islamic Studies,\nUniversity of M\u00fcnster, Germany\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDetails of first publication for each article:<\/strong>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT\u00fcl\u00fcn De\u011firmenci, \u201cBir Kitab\u0131\u00a0Ka\u00e7 Ki\u015fi Okur? Osmanl\u0131\u2019da Okurlar ve Okuma Bi\u00e7imleri \u00dczerine Baz\u0131 G\u00f6zlemler\u201d, Tarih\u00a0ve Toplum: Yeni Yakla\u015f\u0131mlar<\/em>, 13 (G\u00fcz 2011): 7-43.\n\n\n\n\n\nIsma\u00ebl Er\u00fcnsal,\u201cTarih\u00ee Geli\u015fim: \u0130stanbul’da ve \u0130mparatorlu\u011fun Di\u011fer\u00a0B\u00f6lgelerinde Kitap Ticareti ve Sahaflar\u201d, in Osmanl\u0131larda Sahafl\u0131k ve Sahaflar<\/em>.\u00a0\u0130stanbul: Tima\u015f Yay\u0131nlar\u0131, 2013:\n81-91.\n\n\n\n\n\nChristoph Neumann, \u201c\u00dc\u00e7 tarz-\u0131\u00a0m\u00fctalaa: Yeni\u00e7a\u011f Osmanl\u0131 D\u00fcnyas\u0131\u2019nda kitap okumak ve yazmak\u201d, Tarih ve\u00a0Toplum<\/em>, no. 1, Spring 2005: 51-76.\n\n\n\n\n\n\u00d6zg\u00fcr T\u00fcresay, \u201cBir Osmanl\u0131\u00a0Matbaac\u0131s\u0131n\u0131n Serg\u00fcze\u015fti: Eb\u00fczziya Tevfik\u2019in Matbaa-i Eb\u00fczziya\u2019s\u0131\u201d, Toplumsal\u00a0Tarih<\/em>, Say\u0131 128, August 2004: 36-43.\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n[1] <\/a>Terms marked with an asterisk are defined in\nthe glossary.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[2]<\/a>\u00a0Rifaat Ali Abou-el-Haj, The Formation of the Modern State: The Ottoman\nEmpire, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries<\/em>. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991, pp.\n73-92.\n\n\n\n\n\n[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Sabev,\u00a0Orlin. \u0130brahim M\u00fcteferrika ya da \u0130lk Osmanl\u0131 Matbaa Ser\u00fcveni 1726 -1746:\nYeniden De\u011ferlendirme <\/em>[\u0130brahim M\u00fcteferrika or Adventure of the First\nOttoman Printing Press 1726 -1746: Revisited]. \u0130stanbul: Yeditepe\nYay\u0131nevi,\u00a02006: 140-162. See also ibid.,\u00a0Waiting for M\u00fcteferrika: Glimpses of Ottoman\nPrint Culture<\/em>.\u00a0Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2018.\n\n\n\n\n\n[4]<\/a>\u00a0Anderson,\u00a0Benedict.\u00a0Imagined\u00a0Communities:\u00a0Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism<\/em>. Revised\u00a0reprint. London, New York: Verso, 1991.\n\n\n\n\n\n[5]<\/a>\u00a0Zeldin,\u00a0Theodore.\u00a0France 1848\u20131945: Volume\u00a0Two: Intellect, Taste and Anxiety<\/em>. Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 139-205.\n\n\n\n\n\n[6]<\/a>\u00a0Somel,\u00a0Sel\u00e7uk A.\u00a0The Modernization of\u00a0Public Education in the Ottoman Empire, 1839-1908: Islamization, Autocracy and\u00a0Discipline<\/em>. Leiden: Brill, 2001; Fortna, Benjamin C.\u00a0Imperial Classroom: Islam, the State, and\u00a0Education in the Late Ottoman Empire<\/em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press,\n2003.\n\n\n\n\n\n[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Messick,\u00a0Brinkley.\u00a0The Calligraphic State:\u00a0Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society<\/em>. Berkeley: University of\u00a0California Press, 1992.\n\n\n\n\n\n[8]<\/a>\u00a0\u00dcyepazarc\u0131,\u00a0Erol and Ra\u015fit \u00c7ava\u015f. “II. Abd\u00fclhamid\u2019in Polisiye Roman Merak\u0131 ve\u00a0\u00c7evirtti\u011fi Polisiye Romanlar\u201d [Abd\u00fclhamid II’s Enthusiasm for Detective Novels\u00a0and the Detective Novels Translated for Him],\u00a0M\u00fcteferrika<\/em>, Winter 2002, no. 22: 97-116.\n\n\n
    \n \t
  1. Christoph K. Neumann, ‘Three Modes of Reading: Writing and Reading Books in Early Modern Ottoman\u00a0Society’<\/a><\/li>\n \t
  2. T\u00fcl\u00fcn De\u011firmenci, ‘A book is read by how many people?\u00a0Some observations on readers and reading modes in the Ottoman Empire’<\/a><\/li>\n \t
  3. Ismail E. Er\u00fcnsal, ‘The Book Trade and Booksellers of Istanbul and other regions of the Ottoman Empire’in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n \t
  4. \u00d6zg\u00fcr T\u00fcresay, ‘An Adventure in Ottoman Printing: Eb\u00fczziya Tevfik\u2019s Matbaa-i Eb\u00fczziya’<\/a><\/li>\n \t
  5. Glossary<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The\u00a0fifth issue of Lingua Franca: The History of the Book in Translation\u00a0presents a selection of four articles on the history of manuscripts and printed\u00a0books in the Ottoman Empire. It should be stated for readers who are not\u00a0familiar with the Ottoman cultural field that the selection of articles\u00a0reflects only the history…<\/p>\n

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