# The Ottoman Empire's First Printing Press: A 400-Year Delay

An episode of [The Ottoman Empire: How It Ruled Three Continents for 600 Years — Fexingo History](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1895336292), 18 Aug 2026, 9:30.

Audio: https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-ottoman-empire/episode-0207.mp3

In this episode of The Ottoman Empire: How It Ruled Three Continents for 600 Years, Lucas and Luna explore the curious gap between the invention of movable type and its arrival in Ottoman lands. Why did the first printing press appear in Istanbul only in 1727, nearly three centuries after Gutenberg? Lucas traces the opposition from the guild of scribes, the anxieties of the ulema, and the cautious embrace of a Hungarian convert named Ibrahim Muteferrika. They discuss the role of the sultan's approval, the first printed books, and how the empire's relationship with the printed word shaped learning, censorship, and communication for centuries. Along the way, they touch on the broader themes of tradition, innovation, and the slow pace of change in a vast and diverse empire. #OttomanEmpire #PrintingPress #IbrahimMuteferrika #Istanbul #1727 #OttomanHistory #HistoryOfPrint #Scribes #Ulema #Gutenberg #EarlyModern #OttomanCulture #TurkishHistory #MiddleEast #FexingoHistory #BookHistory #Technology #HistoryPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

## Transcript

Lucas: So today, let's talk about something that seems like a simple question but opens a huge door: why did the Ottoman Empire take so long to adopt the printing press? I mean, Gutenberg printed his Bible in 1455, and the first press in Istanbul only started working in 1727. That's almost three centuries.
Luna: Wait, really? That's a massive gap. What took them so long?
Lucas: Right. The easy answer is that there was no demand — because the Ottomans had a thriving manuscript culture. Scribes, calligraphers, the whole hattat tradition — they were deeply valued, and the written word was seen as an art form. But that's only part of the story. The deeper reason was a combination of economic interests, religious suspicion, and also fear of what printed books might bring.
Lucas: Think about the scribes. There was a whole guild, the cemaat-i hattatan, whose livelihood depended on copying manuscripts by hand. They saw printing as a direct threat, and they had the ear of the court. For them, a printed book was not only competition but a kind of sacrilege — because copying the Quran by hand was a pious act.
Luna: So they were basically protecting their craft — and their religion — at once?
Lucas: Exactly. And the ulema — the religious scholars — often sided with them. They argued that printing would lead to errors in the Quran, that it would devalue the sacred text, and that it would open the door to heretical ideas. There were also bans that specifically prohibited printing in Arabic script — for religious texts, at least. But the ban wasn't total. Jews and Christians in the empire had their own presses, printing in Hebrew and Greek, as early as the 1490s.
Luna: Oh, so it was specifically about the script — not the technology itself?
Lucas: Partly. The authorities were worried that if you printed the Quran in Arabic script, it could be corrupted. And also, the Ottoman court was very conservative about language and tradition. But the real push came from a fascinating figure: Ibrahim Muteferrika. He was a Hungarian convert to Islam, born around 1674, who became a diplomat, an intellectual, and an Ottoman official. He saw the power of print firsthand in Europe, and he lobbied for years to bring it to Istanbul.
Lucas: Muteferrika wasn't just a printer — he was a polymath. He wrote about geography, astronomy, and history, and he believed that printing could help the empire catch up with the West. He even prepared a memorandum for the grand vizier, arguing that printing would spread knowledge, improve education, and strengthen the state. But he had to walk a careful line between innovation and tradition.
Luna: So how did he finally get permission? Was there a specific sultan or a change in attitude?
Lucas: The key was a fatwa from the şeyhülislam, the highest religious authority. In 1726, he issued an edict that permitted printing — but with two huge conditions: you couldn't print the Quran, and you couldn't print any religious science. Only history, geography, language, and science were allowed. That opened the door. In 1727, Sultan Ahmed III gave his formal approval, and Muteferrika set up his press in Istanbul.
Lucas: The first books printed were things like dictionaries, histories, and a geography book. He even printed a map of the Sea of Marmara. But the press was never a commercial success. The number of books was small — maybe a few thousand copies total — and the quality was high, but the demand just wasn't there. The elite still preferred handwritten manuscripts. And the scribes' guild kept its monopoly over the most valuable books.
Luna: So the press existed, but it didn't really change the culture that much. It's like they had the technology but not the will to use it.
Lucas: Right. And that's the fascinating part — it's not just about inventing something, it's about the social and cultural conditions that make it take root. In the Ottoman case, the manuscript was not just a medium; it was a symbol of prestige and piety. The sultan himself had a massive library of handwritten books, many of them illuminated by the finest hattats. A printed book, even if beautiful, was seen as common.
Lucas: This is also a good point to mention something about how we do this show. We put a lot of effort into researching these stories, and we keep the podcast free and without ads. If you enjoy what we do, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to help us keep going, and we really appreciate it.
Luna: Yeah, it's a nice way to help out if you're able. And honestly, it's great that we can keep this ad-free.
Lucas: But let's get back to the press. Muteferrika died in 1747, and his press closed soon after. It reopened later, but printing remained a marginal enterprise for another hundred years. The big change came in the 19th century, with the Tanzimat reforms, when the state itself started publishing newspapers and books. But even then, the Quran was never printed in the Ottoman Empire until 1924, after the republic was founded.
Luna: Wow, so the taboo was that strong? They never printed the Quran under the sultans?
Lucas: Never. It was considered too sacred to be reproduced mechanically until the modern era. That tells you how deep the resistance ran. But there's another layer: the printing press also faced technical challenges. Arabic script is cursive and connected, and the different forms of letters — initial, medial, final — made it much harder to set in type than, say, Latin script. That's one reason the first Arabic presses in Europe were slow to develop too.
Lucas: Muteferrika had to commission special typefaces, and even then, the results were uneven. Some critics said the printed books were less beautiful than manuscripts, which was true — they couldn't match the calligraphic flair of a master hattat. So even when the press worked, it was seen as a poor imitation of the real thing.
Luna: So it wasn't just opposition — it was also that the technology wasn't as good for Arabic script, at least at first.
Lucas: Exactly. That's a crucial point. The Ottoman delay wasn't just about conservatism or religion; it was also about aesthetics, technical capability, and economics. And when printing finally did spread, in the 19th century, it came with new kinds of presses and typefaces that could replicate the script more faithfully. But the cultural memory of the handwritten book never quite faded. Even today, in Turkey, calligraphy is still revered as a high art.
Lucas: One more thing — Muteferrika's press also printed some rather unexpected titles. For example, he published a history of the West Indies, and a book about the origins of the Turks. These were not just technical manuals; they were meant to educate the Ottoman elite about the wider world. He believed that knowledge was power, and that printing could give the empire new tools to navigate a changing geopolitical landscape.
Luna: He sounds like a man ahead of his time, but also very pragmatic.
Lucas: He was. He had to be — he was a convert in a court where patronage was everything. He also served as a diplomat and an advisor on European affairs. His press was part of a larger vision for Ottoman renewal. But he faced constant suspicion. Some saw him as a crypto-Christian, others as a tool of the West. He had to navigate alliances carefully, and he succeeded for a while, but his legacy is mixed. For many decades after his death, printing was seen as a foreign novelty, not a necessity.
Luna: Yet it eventually did change things. It's just amazing how slowly it happened.
Lucas: And that slowness has consequences. When the printing press did become widespread, it contributed to a modernization of education and communication that helped the empire survive into the 20th century. But it also meant that the Ottoman world missed out on the explosion of printed material that transformed Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. That gap in knowledge and information is one reason the empire was often a step behind the West in science, technology, and military strategy.
Lucas: So, next time you pick up a printed book, think about how revolutionary this technology was — and how, in the Ottoman context, it took centuries to be accepted. And if you want to learn more about the specifics, I recommend looking into the history of the Muteferrika press. There are some great academic studies and a few facsimile copies of his early prints.
Luna: Thanks for this, Lucas. It's a great reminder that history isn't just about dates and battles — it's also about how ideas travel and how societies choose to embrace or resist change.
Lucas: Absolutely. And next time, we can look at another layer of Ottoman communication — maybe the telegraph, or the post, or even the use of pigeons. There's always something new to explore.

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