The first press known to have existed in Egypt after it became part of the Ottoman Empire (1517) was set up by Jews. Gershom ben Eliezer Soncine, descendant of a four-generation family of printers, printed two books in Cairo in 1557—Refu ’ot ha-Talmud (Medicine of the Talmud) and Pitron halomot (The Interpretation of Dreams)—using presses imported from Istanbul. Ben Eliezer continued to work as a printer until 1562. A second Jewish press was founded by Abraham ben Moses Yatom in 1740, and printed a book entitled Hok le-Yisrael (Law for Israel).1 Despite signs that Hebrew books were printed in Egypt after that date, no clear evidence exists as to the names of the presses or the books that were printed on them.
Where printing with Arabic characters in Egypt is concerned, the consensus is that it began with the press that Napoleon Bonaparte brought with him on the French Expedition (1798). The first persons to set up the press there were two men who arrived with the expedition, namely, the French orientalist Jean-Joseph Marcel (b. 1776), who printed texts in oriental languages, and Joseph Marc Emmanuel Aurel (b. 1775). The first text to be printed using Arabic characters in Egypt was the Proclamation of 21-22 June 1798, which was printed by Marcel on the press brought by the Orient, the flagship of the fleet that brought Napoleon and his invading army. The Arabic proclamation in question was written in the form of a speech by Napoleon to the Egyptian people and a justification for the French occupation. This first press, set up by Marcel and named the Imprimerie orientale et frangaise, continued its activities throughout the three years of the French occupation. Soon after its initial establishment in Alexandria, however, it was moved to Cairo (January 1799), where its name was changed to the
Imprimerie nationale du Caire. The latter employed two directors, three proofreaders, and eighteen printers. The second press in Cairo was the one belonging to Joseph Marc Emmanuel Aurel and named the Imprimerie de Marc Aurel. On these two presses, the French printed more than twenty books, in French, Italian, Greek, Turkish, and Arabic, most of which concerned administrative and military matters.2 Of these, the following contain Turkish texts:
• J. J. Marcel. Alphabet arabe, turk [sic] etpersan a l ’usage de l ’Imprimerie orientate et fTangaise (The Arab, Turkish, and Persian Alphabets, for the Use of the Imprimerie orientale et frangaise). Alexandria: L’Imprimerie orientale et frangaise, 1798. The sixteen-page book consists of a table illustrating the Arabic, Turkish, and Persian alphabets used at the Imprimerie.
• 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). Cairo: Imprimerie nationale du Caire, 1214/1800. The book recounts the assassination in Cairo of Jean-Baptiste Kleber (1753-1800), commander of the French Expedition following Napoleon’s departure from Egypt, by Sulayman al-Halabi, and the latter’s subsequent trial. It is written in Turkish, Arabic, and French. The Turkish section consists of 128 pages, the Arabic of eighty-five pages, and the French of forty-seven pages. The colophon indicates that five hundred copies were printed, and it must be regarded as, without a doubt, the first book printed in Turkish in Egypt.
The same presses also printed two French newspapers. The Courier de l ’Egypte was the first to be published in Egypt, starting at the Imprimerie de Marc Aurel on 29 August 1798, with thirty issues appearing. Thereafter it was printed at the Imprimerie nationale, coming to an end with Issue 116. La Decade egyptienne, whose first issue appeared on 1 October 1798, came out once every ten days. The French also contemplated publishing a newspaper in Arabic under the name al-Tanbih = L ’Avertissement (The Alert), but whether it in fact appeared remains a matter of debate.3 When the French army was obliged to withdraw from Egypt in 1801, it left nothing related to the press behind.
World History
