Only two books were printed in Turkish in Egypt before the establishment of the Bulaq Press, both on the press brought by the French when they occupied Egypt. The first of these was a sort of list of the letters used at the press. We may, therefore, regard the second, which was printed in 1800 and concerns the trial of Sulayman al-Halabi, assassin of the French general Kleber, as the first true book to be printed in Turkish in Egypt. It was entitled Franga sergerdelerinden Kleber ismiyle meghur sergerdenin katili olan Suleyman nam Halebi hakkinda vuku bulan fahs ve teftig ve hukm-i ger ‘i havi evrakin mecmaidir (The Collection of Documents that Contain the Investigation, Inspection, and Legal Sentence about Suleyman from Aleppo Who Killed Kleber, the Renowned French Commander).
Ottoman book printing started with the establishment of Muteferrika’s press in Istanbul in 1729. By 1822, the year in which a press was established at Bulaq, close to Cairo, three presses were printing books in the caliph’s capital using the Arabic alphabet.4 However, Muhammad ‘Ali’s interest in printing helped to increase greatly the number of Turkish books printed after the founding of the Bulaq Press, which put out 253 Turkish books from that time until the death of Muhammad ‘Ali, that is, between 1822 and 1848. The first Turkish book to be printed at the press, and the first book ever printed there, was entitled Vesdydname-i seferiye (The Advices Related to War). The last Turkish book whose printing on the Bulaq Press we have been able to confirm was a work on hieroglyphs, Hiyeroglif: huruf-i Berbdiye tercumesi (Hieroglyphs: The Translation of Ancient Egyptian Letters), written by Bandirmalizade Mehmed Muhsin and printed in 1311/1893.
The Bulaq Press occupies a special place among the presses that printed Turkish books in Egypt, both in terms of numbers and in terms of quality and printing features. We have confirmed the printing of 371 books in Turkish at Bulaq from its year of foundation in 1238/1822 to 1311/1893, the year in which the last Turkish book was printed.5 In addition to those in Turkish, the press printed a number of books in Arabic and in Persian; these, however, lie outside the scope of this study. Hsu has provided us with information on the books printed during the first thirty years after the founding of the press (1822-51) and states that 570 books were printed in Egypt during this period, of which 526 were printed at the Bulaq Press. He also mentions that 259 out
Hiyeroglif: huruf-i Berbaiye tercumesi (Hieroglyphs: The Translation of Ancient Egyptian Letters), the last book in Turkish to be printed at the Bulaq Press (1311/1893)
Of the general total were in Turkish, 255 in Arabic, and fourteen in Persian. Books whose language of composition has not been established total forty-two. In the course of this study, we have been able to confirm the printing of 292 books in Turkish during the same thirty-year period, corresponding to 213 entries in Part Three.6
The percentage of books printed in Turkish during the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali as a portion of the general total of all books printed at the Bulaq Press is a clear indication of the importance accorded to the press at that period. Thus, the books printed during the Muhammad ‘Ali period served the Egyptian establishment, supported the reform movements that were under way, catered to the cultural needs of the Turks residing in the country, and assisted them in carrying out the services with which they were tasked. Additionally, the books printed in Egypt became, in general, a source for a new production that made its way to Ottoman Turkey and nourished the Turkish book market and the presses of Istanbul.
Books Printed at Bulaq during the Reign of Muhammad 'Ali As mentioned, the books printed in Turkish at the Bulaq Press during the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali numbered 253. These may be broken down by subject as follows:
The diversity of the subject matter of the books printed at Bulaq during Muhammad ‘Ali’s reign clearly demands attention. This diversity was not only the result of the special consideration accorded the press by Muhammad ‘Ali and those involved in the administration, but also a function of the fact that the books printed answered the needs of the day.
Military works, almost all of them translated from foreign languages, occupy a special place among the Turkish books printed at the time. A large portion of these books was translated from French, especially under Muhammad ‘Ali,7 the pasha taking great care over their translation, as mentioned earlier. In view of the fact that most of these books do not bear the translator’s name, it is not always easy to discover who their translators were, though it is known that certain individuals, such as Ahmed Halil and Osman Nureddin, who were among the first students sent from 1809 onward by Muhammad ‘Ali to Europe to study, produced a large number of them. It is also known that these books on military affairs were printed only in Egypt, where they were reprinted several times within a short period; unlike other books, they were not reprinted in Istanbul.
Literary works also represent a large portion of the books printed under Muhammad ‘Ali at Bulaq, with fifty-seven titles, of which twenty-eight are collections of the works of Turkish poets, printed with greater beauty and better layout than the editions published in Istanbul. These Turkish verse collections, published during a ten-year period from 1836 to 1846, provide us with exquisite examples of printing and display the influence of the beauty of manuscripts upon the printed book and of the manuscript tradition in general. We also find a large number of stories and tales translated from Persian. Examples are: Hikdye-i reis el-hukemd ahi Ebu el-Hdris ve huve Ebu Ali Ibn-i Sina (The Story of Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina, Chief of the Wise Men and the Brother of Abu al-Harith), the Tutiname (Tales of a Parrot), and Kitab-i Humayunname. The second of these was printed three times at the Bulaq Press (1837, 1838, and 1839-40), the third twice (1835, 1838).
Fifty-one religious books were published under Muhammad ‘Ali, most of them on jurisprudence (twenty titles). Also represented were school textbooks, such as llm-i hdl (Catechism), Durr-i yekta (The Unique Pearl), and §erh el-Vasiyet el-Muhammediye (The Commentary on The Muhammadan Testament), which was printed five times at the Bulaq Press during this period, while the two other titles were each printed four times. Books of jurisprudence are followed by books on Sufism (nine titles) and on the lives of the prophets (six titles). In addition to these, and during the same period, Qur’anic commentaries, books of prayers and sermons, and books on creed and ethics were also printed.
Books on language and grammar for the teaching of Turkish, Arabic, and Persian were also printed in Egypt, and these occupy a special place among the rest, as the twenty titles on these subjects printed under Muhammad ‘Ali testify. The Turkish-Persian work Tuhfe-i Vehbi (Vehbi’s Rhyming Dictionary) used for the teaching of Persian was printed six times in Egypt, Persian being compulsory at the time in the schools of Egypt (the work was also reprinted three more times after Muhammad ‘Ali).
The year 1254/1838-39 was the peak year for the printing of Turkish books at the Bulaq Press, which printed twenty Turkish titles in that year alone; eight of these were literature, four were on military affairs, four on language, three on Islamic religion, and one on history. The Bulaq Press had already printed, in 1252/1836-37, eighteen Turkish titles. In 1256/1840-41, it printed seventeen titles. These three years, then, were those in which the Bulaq Press issued the largest number of books in Turkish during the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali. The following shows the distribution of Turkish books printed at the Bulaq Press by year:
Two other presses printed books in Turkish during the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali, the Saray al-Iskandariya (Alexandria Palace) Press and the Diwan al-Jihadiya (War Office) Press. The first printed four such titles plus the §erh-i Divdn-i Hafiz li-Sudi (Sudi’s Commentary on the Collected Verse of Hafez) (1250/1834), which was, however, completed at the Bulaq Press. The Diwan al-Jihadiya Press printed nine other books in Turkish.
The Printing of Turkish Books at Bulaq after Muhammad 'Ali A major decline in the number of books printed at Bulaq is noticeable following the death of Muhammad ‘Ali. The press started to lose its importance and the number of Turkish schoolbooks printed shrank as a result of the changes taking place in the field of education. Consequently, the numbers of books printed in Turkish also dwindled. A further contributing factor, however, was the increase in the number of private presses after 1859. Such presses did not, however, achieve the same output of Turkish books as had the Bulaq Press during the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali.
The following table shows the distribution of Turkish books printed at the Bulaq Press following the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali by year:
In the economic straits in which the Bulaq Press found itself, it was sold in 1862 to ‘Abd al-Rahman Rushdi and was known, for the brief period (two years and four months) during which it was under his control, as the Matbaa-i Abdurrahman Ru§di (‘Abd al-Rahman Rushdi Press). It was reacquired by Khedive Isma‘il in 1865. We have identified three Turkish books that were printed during the ‘Abd al-Rahman Rushdi period: §erh el-Salavat el-Me§l§iye (The Commentary on the Prayers of [‘Abd al-Salam] Mashish) (1279/1862-63), ln§a-i cedid (The New Composition) (1280/1863), and Marifetname (The Book of Knowledge) (1280/1863).
In 1880, at the start of Khedive Tawfiq’s reign, interest in the Bulaq Press revived. The government had reassumed ownership of the press after Tawfiq’s father had converted it into a personal holding of the ruler (da’ira saniya). Immediately following this date, in 1300/1882-83, the number of Turkish books printed increased, with the press issuing ten books in Turkish during that year. This upsurge was, however, by way of a last flaring of the flame before the lamp went out.
Despite the decline in the number of books printed at the Bulaq Press following the death of Muhammad ‘Ali, the printing of Turkish books continued, albeit in small numbers, on the various other presses then in existence. The number of Turkish books printed at the Wadi al-Nil, Muhandiskhana, and al-Madaris al-Mulkiya (Civil Schools) presses did not exceed fifty-seven up to 1895, the year in which Young Turk publications began to appear.10
World History
