Ibrahim Muteferrika (1674-1745)
Ibrahim Müteferrika (Turkish: İbrahim Müteferrika; 1674–1745) was a Hungarian-born Ottoman diplomat, polymath, publisher, printer,courtier, economist, man of letters, astronomer, historian, historiographer, Islamic scholar and theologian, sociologist,[1] and the firstMuslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type.[2]
Early life
Ibrahim Muteferrika was born in Kolozsvár (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania). He was an ethnic Hungarian Unitarian who converted to Islam.[2][3] His original Hungarian language name is however unknown.[2]
Diplomatic Service[edit]
"Why do the Christian nations, which were so weak in the past compared with Muslim nations begin to dominate so many lands in modern times and even defeat the once victorious Ottoman armies?"..."Because they have laws and rules invented by reason"
Ibrahim Muteferrika, Rational basis for the Politics of Nations (1731)[4]
At a young age, Ibrahim Muteferrika entered the Ottoman diplomatic services. He took an active part in the negotiations withAustria and Russia. Ibrahim Muteferrika was an active figure in promoting the Ottoman-French alliance (1737–1739) againstAustria and Russia. Ibrahim Muteferrika was also acclaimed for his role in the Ottoman-Swedish action against Russia. During his services as a diplomat he is known to have befriended many influential personalities including Osman Aga of Temesvar, a fellow diplomat of Transylvanian origins and former prisoner of war imprisoned in Austria.[5]
It was during his years as a diplomat that he took a keen interest in collecting books that helped him understand the ongoingRenaissance, the emergence of Protestant movements in Europe, and the rise of powerful colonial empires in Europe.
Printing Press
His volumes, printed in Istanbul and using custom-made fonts, are occasionally referred to as "Turkish incunabula".[2][6] Muteferrika, whose last name derived from his employment as a Müteferrika, head of the household, under Sultan Ahmed III and during the Tulip Era, was also a geographer, astronomer, and philosopher.[2]
Following a 1726 report on the efficiency of the new system, which he drafted and presented simultaneously to Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha, the Grand Mufti, and the clergy, and a later request submitted to Sultan Ahmed III, he received permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some calligraphers and religious leaders).[2] Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729, and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes (each having between 500 and 1,000 copies).[2][6] The first book ever published by Muteferrika is "Vankulu Lügati", a 2-volume Arabic-Turkish dictionary.
Among the works published by Müteferrika were historical and generically scientific works, as well as Katip Çelebi's world atlasCihannüma (loosely translated as: The Mirror of the World or the World Seer).[2] In a digression that he added to his printing, Müteferrika discussed the Heliocentrism of astronomy in detail, with references to relatively up-to-date scientific arguments for and against it. In this regard, he is considered one of the first people to properly introduce heliocentrism to the Ottoman readers.[7]
After 1742, however, Ibrahim Muteferrika's printing activities were discontinued and an attempt by the British diplomat James Mario Matra, motivated by the exorbitant prices for manuscript books, to reestablish a press in Istanbul was aborted in 1779.[8] In his account, Matra refers to the strong opposition of the scribes which Müteferrika's enterprise had to face earlier:
A common accusation thrown at the Ottoman Empire is that it
was intellectually stagnant and resistant to any innovation. A Hungarian
convert to Islam – Ibrahim Muteferrika – flies in the face of that idea. He was
originally an Ottoman diplomat who managed to cultivate close relations between
the Ottoman Empire and France and Sweden. As a result of his diplomatic work,
he was exposed to European ideas on the Renaissance and the ubiquitous use of
the printing press.
A page from an atlas printed by Ibrahim Muteferrika.
Back in Istanbul, he established a printing press, where he
printed copies of atlases, dictionaries, and some religious books. Among his
published works was a world atlas made by the famous geographer
Katip Çelebi, which illustrates the entire known world at that time in
incredible detail and precision. Besides simply printing books, Muteferrika
also wrote on numerous subjects, including history, theology, sociology, and
astronomy.
Mİbrâhîm
Müteferrika was the founder of the first
Ottoman Turkish printing house in Turkey. Printing shops publishing non-Turkish
editions had worked in the Ottoman Empire before him, and beyond the boundaries
of the empire there were many examples of Arabic printed works. However, the
Ottoman government repeatedly issued regulations prohibiting the printed
reproduction of Ottoman Turkish texts, while it permitted to non-Muslim
minorities living in the empire to publish books in their respective languages in
this form.
The
Sephardi Jews wandering into the Ottoman Empire established their first press
in 1493, the Armenians in 1567 and the Greeks in 1627. By the early 18th
century these minorities had dozens of printing offices in the empire, mainly
in Istanbul, Salonica and Izmir.
Several
theories have been proposed to explain why just Turkish printing came so late.
One of the interrelated reasons is of religious and ideological in nature. In
the Arab-Islamic civilization the role of writing is inseparable from its
primary role as a carrier of divine revelation. Thus the “breaking up” of its
cursive nature, inevitable during typesetting, could be considered as an insult
against the holy Arabic script. This is why the Islamic world was initially
more favorable to the reproduction by simple copying offered by the process of
litography.
The
belated permission of Turkish book printing had economic reasons as well. In
fact, this technique was a formidable competitor in the long term for the
clerks and book copiers working in a large number in the Ottoman capital.
The
conservatism of the religious elite, also reflected in the question of book
printing, could be well rooted in the realization of the fact that this
technology of the “infidel” West allows the fast, cheap and uncontrolled mass
distribution of contents which are potentially conflicting with Islam and which
indirectly threaten their own dominant position as well.
The
take-up of Turkish printing had to expect the favorable political atmosphere of
the Tulip Period (1703-1730) and the appearance of a professional printer with
a sense of vocation. The emergence of Ibrahim Müteferrika in this situation can
be regarded as a lucky coincidence. European intellectuals of a humanist
education with experience in printing on the one hand, and committed Muslim
scholars on the other hand were no rarity in the period, but the coexistence of
these two criteria in one person was it all the more. And without this
coincidence it is difficult to imagine that Turkish book printing could have
put roots in this period and with such objective.
The
expertise of which Müteferrika made so good use in Istanbul links him with
several threads to the Transylvanian environment of his less known youth. His
openness to natural sciences and printing as well as his theological erudition
show the impact of the Unitarian education and Protestant spirituality in
Kolozsvár even in lack of any other evidence.
The
establishment of the printing house was supported, apart from the patronage of
the Grand Vizier, also by the dedicated assistance of the Ottoman court’s first
ambassador in Paris, Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi (died in 1732) who was committed
to Western-style reforms. A number of early clichés and printed maps shows that
the official founding of the Turkish printing shop was preceded by several
years of experimenting, in part to make popular and more acceptable the
technique of mass printing. 1
The
workshop of Müteferrika began its historical mission in 1728. They published 17
works in 22 volumes. The printing house served as a means to the long-term goal
of Müteferrika, his efforts to broaden and modernize the knowledge of Ottoman
society and Islamic civilization. This is evidenced by the subjects of the
books selected for publishing, the motivations put forth in the publisher’s
introductions, as well as by the documents illuminating the background of the
publication of each book, also published in print.
The
Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
preserves 13 out of the 17 publications from the first period of the printing
house, when it worked under the supervision of Müteferrika. These prints came
in possession of the Library in the early 20th century not as a uniform
collection, but thanks to several donors. To the digital illustration of the
complete series we also used the copies in the precious Collection of Old
Prints of the Hungarian National Széchényi Library. 2
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