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The
Invention of Printing
Johannes Gutenberg
who invented the first printing press was born in Mainz, Germany, 1400
and was a goldsmith by trade and was a master calligrapher. He moved
to Strasburg, at a time when he was contemplating his invention for
printing. He was successful in realizing his invention in 1450. Strasburg
recognized his magnificent achievement by erecting a statue of him carrying
a book with a quotation from the Old Testament “And there
was light.” This expression duly described that great inventor
who made it possible for various classes of society tp have access to
knowledge when books were very rare and very expensive requiring massive
efforts by many transcribers. Before this invention, monasteries and
monks took on the burden of copying books and presenting them to kings
and princes or for preserving in their libraries.
A
painting of Deacon Abdalla Zakhir, Melkite Greek Catholic Monastery
of Saint John Sabigh, The Showyri. He made the first Arabic printing
press in the Arabic-speaking East in 1734.
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The
First Printed Book that Contained Arabic
Arabic did not
appear in print until Martin Roth, a Dominican Priest, printed a book
in Latin in 1486 by Bernard von Brandenburg from Mainz of his travels
to the Holy Land. The publisher created illustrated plates where the
Arabic script was represented in the book for the first time and included
the full Arabic alphabet accompanied by Latin annunciation guide. The
extent of printing Arabic did not go farther than including a few sentences.
At that time, there was no need to print in Arabic in Europe until the
reclamation of Granada (Spain) from the Muslims. At that point in time,
the newly appointed bishop of Granada summoned learned men from the
university city of Salamanca headed by Juan Faliria and asked him to
prepare two books for missionaries who did not know Arabic. The books
were published in 1505 and 1506 (using illustrated plates). The first
was entitled “Ways of Teaching and Reading Arabic and its
Knowledge” and the second “A Dictionary of Arabic
in ‘Kashtaliyya’ Script.”
The First Printed Book in Arabic, Using Movable Script in the West
"It is generally accepted that the first book printed from movable Arabic type
was the Kitab salat al-sawai also variously known as Septem horae canonicae,1 Horologion,2 Precatio horaii,3 Preces horariae4 etc., and usually translated as the Book of Hours. This work
was presumably commissioned and published at the expense of Pope Julius II (A.D. 1503-13)
and intended for distribution among Christians of the Middle East."5
This blessed Book of Hours was completed on Tuesday, September 12th of the year 1514 of
our Lord Jesus Christ, praised be his name! Amen. It was printed by Gregorius of the House of
Gregorius of the city of Venice; printed (kh-t-m-t) in the city of Fano (Fan) during the reign
of His Holiness Pope Leo, occupying the throne of St. Peter the Apostle in the city of Rome. Let
him who finds an error rectify it and God will rectify his matters through the Lord. Amen.
Further, it is evident from a Latin preface of an Arabic print dated 1517 that such translations and printed materials were meant for the Christians of the eastern Mediterranean who by the 16th century had begun to give up their usage of the Aramaic language in favor of Arabic. An Arabic translation of the psalms by Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl, a
Melkite bishop6 testifies to that, while it is known that the Melkites were using the gospels and other parts of the New Testament in Western Aramaic as late as the 10th and 11th century7 and much later.
First
Printing Presses in Lebanon & the East
What facilitated
modern renaissance of the Arab speaking world was the spread of printing
from Lebanon at the beginning of the 17th century. The first press that
was imported into Lebanon, during the reign of Prince Fakhr Eddine Maany
the Great, by Maronite Monks of the Monastery of Saint Quzhayya in 1610.
The second press of the whole East was that of the Monastery of Saint
John Sabigh, The Showyri, Khunshara in 1734. The third press was Saint
George’s Press of Beirut in 1751. The Monastery of Quzhayya was
also known for a second press that was brought to the monastery by Brother
Seraphim Beirouthy in 1814. The latter was known for printing liturgical
books, specifically the Holy Bible which was reprinted several times.
Psalms
and Religious Books
 The
Monastery of Quzhayya commenced printing books in Arabic using transliterated
Syriac script especially the Psalms and other religious books. This
subject was under study by the Institute of the Holy Spirit in Kaslik.
Printing did not
reach Egypt until the 1798 Napoleon’s campaign and invasion of
Egypt when he brought the first press to that country. This clearly
demonstrates that the Arabic-speaking Middle East is indebted
singularly to the Lebanon for the introduction of printing presses to
that part of the world.
The
Press of Saint John Sabigh, the Showyri
This press was
invented or made by Deacon Abdallah Zakhir and was documented by the
magazine “Al Sharq” in 1900.
Abdallah was born
in 1684 in Hama and was known for his skill as a goldsmith, the profession
of his father. At the age of 17, he went to Aleppo and completed his
Arabic studies under the guidance of Sheikh Suleiman Al Nahawy. He also
studied philosophy, theology, Greek and Latin.
He left Aleppo
to Lebanon in 1722. He lived for a while in Zouk Mikhael and, thereafter,
went to Aintourah were a French mission had established a school. He
was well received there and stayed for a short while. During this time,
he was thinking of building a press.
After working on
developing further his plan, he presented the idea to the monks. They
encouraged him to go forward with his plan and provided him with a special
facility as well as funding purchases for lead and other primary tools
to build the press. However, his stay at Aintourah did not last long.
He moved to a small Monastery of Khunshara, the Saint John Sabigh, the
Showyri, on a high hill in a warm solemn and quiet valley between high
mountains . There, he presented his plan to the Abbot, the Archimandrite
Nicholas Sayegh. He started thence the serious execution of his plan
in 1734.
The
Press
Abdallah Zakhir’s
press parts were hand crafted from the wood of the forests that surrounded
the monastery. According to the monks, Zakhir bought the central metal
drums for the press from Aleppo or they may have been the gifts which
were provided to him by the Monks of Aintourah, mentioned earlier. Further,
he crafted the fonts from the same lead and other metals acquired earlier
and which were similar to those used in presses of recent history (before
electronics).
In addition to
crafting Arabic fonts, he crafted Latin and Greek fonts because he mastered
both classical languages, as well. That was specifically required of
him by the Melkite monks for their Byzantine prayers in Greek, as well
as their studies in Latin.
He went about creating
various fonts using lead. He cut the lead thread, with a special scissors,
into standard lengths about 1 inch each. Thereafter, he carved the alphabet
typefaces with a special (goldsmith ?) engraver.
Zakhir used natural
materials to produce ink. He used some plants and minerals that he gathered
from areas around the monastery to produce red and black ink. Often
such “ink resources” were as small as grains of wheat. He
ground them in stone pestles or squeeze them to render their staining
fluids. He mixed the concentrates with pomegranate juice and soot from
the monastery chimneys according to his needs. He let the mixtures sit
uncovered to dry out and concentrate; thereafter they became ready for
printing.
Zakhir’s
First Book
Zakhir’s
first book “Mizaan Al Zamaan” (the scale of time)
appeared in February 1734. It was a collection of prayers. Other books
followed, especially books on theology and religious rites, such as “Qowat Al Nafs” (the strength of the soul) in 1772,
and “Murshid Al Khati2” (guide of the sinner) in
1774, as well as a large collection of prayer books and others. All
of these are preserved in the Monastery along side his skull and his
hand crafted clichés.
Translator's
Note: The author of this website is in possession of one of Zakhir’s
books entitled “Nuboowaat al kanaayis al mutadammin qira2aat
al sawm al kabir al muqaddas…” (Readings for lent,
Good Friday and those of Christmas, the Apparition and major feasts).
This print is dated 1833 and there are samples from it in this web
page.
Valentin
Volney on Zakhir
The famous French
traveler Valentin Volney who visited Lebanon in 1783 and 1787 and stayed
at the Monastery of Saint John Al Showayr wrote: “Zakhir new
the benefits of the press. His literary prowess carried him forward
to take on a project that was three pronged and that involved the skills
of writing, casting and printing with which he realized his dream. He
showed a rich knowledge and capacity to carve owing to his craft as
a goldsmith. His efforts were crowned with success when he published
Kind David’s Psalms in 1733. The pages were very well put together
and the typeface was very clear and beautiful. The book was so well
liked that even those who lobbied against him bought the book for themselves.
The fonts in that book looked very similar to handwritten calligraphy.”
For sure, Zakhir
was unable to do all these projects by himself, had the monasteries
not assisted him, especially the assistance of Deacon Suleiman Kattan
is recognized. Zakhir died in 1748, yet the monks continued to use and
run his press until the beginning of the 20th century when it could
not keep up with modern presses.
Honoring
Zakhir
At the two hundred
year anniversary of Zakhir’s death, a special issue of “Al
Maseera” (the procession) was dedicated to his memory. (Al
Maseera, Volume 7, Number July 1948). Also, a special issue in
his memory of “Hayat wa 3amal” (life and work)
was published by the Melkite Greek Catholic Aleppine Order of Saint
Basil. (Hayat wa 3amal, Number 9 – 10, September, 1948;
113 pages).
For that anniversary,
a special seminar was held at the Institute of National Books in Beirut
where a number of speakers participated. Also, a painting of Zakhir
was ceremoniously unveiled at the Institute in recognition of his production
of the first Lebanese press and first printer that used the Arabic script
about 300 years after Gutenberg.
It is generally accepted that the first book printed from movable Arabic type
was the Kitab salat al-sawai also variously known as Septem horae canonicae,1 Horologion,2
Precatio horaii,3 Preces horariae etc., and usually translated as the Book of Hours. This work
was presumably commissioned and published at the expense of Pope Julius II (A.D. 1503-13)
and intended for distribution among Christians of the Middle East.
The small octavo book consists of 15 gatherings totaling 120 unnumbered leaves. There are 12
lines to the page, enclosed in plain double line borders made up of shorter links which are
rather imperfectly joined to each other. Some of these borders as well as the captions are
printed in red. Several pages have ornamental borders displaying floral and avian motifs.
There are at least 8 copies of this work known to exist, namely: one each at Princeton
University Library, the Estense Library in Modena, the Ambrosian Library in Milan, the
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, the Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, Bodleian Library, and 2, or
possibly 3 in the British Museum. Neither of the two copies closely examined, the copy at
Princeton 5 and the British Museum copy listed below, seem to be complete.
As with so many of the early Arabic printed books, the production of this work is also shrouded
in mystery. No contemporaneous references of substance have been found concerning it, and
what has been written about it is largely conjectural. Very little is known about the work beyond what is found in the book itself, and even that has, at times, been
misinterpreted. For example, a note in German on the flyleaf of the British Museum copy (OR.
70.aa 12) identifies the book as a manuscript.
1 Christian Friedrich Sohnurrer, Bibliotheca arabica (Halle, 1811), p. 231.
2 Georg Graf, Geschichte der chriatlichen arabiachen
Literatur (The Vatican, 1944-53), vol. 1, p. 636.
3 Schnurrer, Bibliotheca arabica, p. 232.
4. Giovanni Galbiati, "La prima stamps in arabo," Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati 6 (1946): 409.
5 A microfilm of this copy was kindly supplied by
Professor Margaret Bent of Brandeis University.
[JNES 38 no. 3 (1979)] © 1979 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 00222968/79/3803-0005/$00.95.
There seems to be a difference of opinion as to just which religious rite the work follows and
what audience is was intended to attract. Schnurrer6 seems to think that it contains prayers of
the Jacobite rite of Alexandria, a notion which would seem corroborated by the arabesque
borders which are predominantly North African7 and one of
6. Schnurrer, Bibiotheca arabica, p. 231. See Claus Nissen, Die illuatrierten Vogeucher
(Stuttgart, 1953), p. 794b.
which represents the ibis, a typical Egyptian bird (fig. 1).8 Hitti,9 on the other hai believes
that the book had a missionary purpose among Muslims, while Graf'· tends feel that the work
was intended for the use of the Melchites.
8 See, e.g., Ahmad Abd al¸Raziq, "Trois fondations
féminines dans l'Egypte mamlouke," Revue des études islamiques 41 (1973): 120 (fig. 9) and
p. 124 (fig. 12). A similar arabesque design may be seen in Adolf Grohmann, Arahische
Palaoqraphie, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1971), p. 172 (fig. 171). Actually the design is found in
variations on tombstones in various Islamic countries. Cf. G. V. Iusupov, Vvedenie v Bulgarotatarskuiu epigrafiku (Moscow and Leningrad, 1960), p. 149 (fig. 12). The arabesque design
even made its entry into the European decorative arts. Giovanni Antonio Tagliente
in his first Italian manual of decoration, the Essempio di recammi (Venice, 1924) gives
striking examples of this. Cf. Stanley Morison, Splendor of Ornament: Specimens Selected from
the Essempio di recammi (London, 1968), pp. 9, 12, 49, and 56.
0 Philip K. Hitti, "The First Book Printed in
Arabic," Princeton University Library Chronicle 4 (1942): 5.
10 Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, vol. 1, p. 636.
That the work was meant for the use of Christians in Syria is evident from a printed Latin
preface dated 1517 as found in the British Museum copy mentioned above. It has also been
established that the psalms used in the Arabic translation were those of Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl, a
Melkite bishop of the eleventh century."
The translator of the Book of Hours into Arabic is not known. There were a number of persons
capable of making such a translation, particularly among the Christian dignitaries from the
Middle East who attended the Fifth Lateran Council convened byPope Julius II and continued by Leo X (A.D. 1512-15). It is known that the question of liturgy
played a prominent part in the Council and that liturgy as such was considered a vehicle of
unification. Thus we observe Tesco Ambrogio of Pavia, a cleric with a legal background and
knowledge of languages, examining the liturgies of the participants of the Council before they
were permitted to celebrate mass in their vernacular languages.' 5 It would probably be
worthwhile to compare the handwriting of some of these persons with the type used in our
work, particularly since the type is unique in many ways. Although rather primitive, the font
permits the use of some ligatures. A very distinctive feature are lines placed above the letter sin and 3ayn to distinguish them from shin and ghayn,
the former, especially, having been in rather frequent use in Arabic manuscripts of the time.
13 There is no evidence that the font was re-used for the printing of any other book.
12 Pietro Terenzio, Di Ambrogio Teseo degii Albonesi pavese notizie biografiche e linguistiche
(Pavia, 1860); see also G. M. Mazzuchelli, Gli Scrittori d'Italia (Brescia, 1703-63), vol. 1,
p. 609.
As in Arabic manuscripts, there is no title page, and the imprint is given in the form of a
colophon at the end of the book as follows:
This blessed Book of Hours was completed on Tuesday, September 12th of the year 1514 of
our Lord Jesus Christ, praised be his name! Amen. It was printed by Gregorius of the House of
Gregorius of the city of Venice; printed (kh-t-m-t) in the city of Fano (Fan) during the reign
of His Holiness Pope Leo, occupying the throne of St. Peter the Apostle in the city of Rome. Let
him who finds an error rectify it and God will rectify his matters through the Lord. Amen.
The problem which primarily concerns us here is the fact that the colophon gives the city of
Fano as the place of publication, while Gregorio de Gregorii, a well-established Venetian
printer, is not known to have published any work outside of the Venetian Republic save for this
one title and that in a year in which he printed other works in Venice.14 The colophon admits
diverse speculations as to the identity of Gregorio as printer and the identity of Fano as the place
of publication.15 All these leads, however, are not sufficiently promising to be pursued here in
detail.
The key to the understanding of this problem seems to be found in the administration of patents
in the Venetian Republic. Up to a certain time in history no restrictions were placed on the
printers. Beginning with the end of the fifteenth century, however, the publishing trade
gradually became more and more regulated.16 Permission had to be secured from the
authorities for certain types of books, and special concessions, patents, and monopolies were
granted to publish them. These instruments, called privilegii, were granted by the College or
the Senate of Venice. With such a monopoly, the government could concede to a certain person
the sole right to print or sell either a whole category of books or a single book for a specified
period of time.
Two monopolies as preserved in the Notarile del Collegio17 are of prime importance for the
book in question, and will also shed light on the enigma of the Arabic Qur'an allegedly printed in
Venice some time before 1530 and of which no copies are extant. Chronologically, the first of
these two documents is dated 15 July 1489 and contains a petition directed to the College of
Venice by one Democrito Terracina for the monopoly to print books in esoteric languages such as
Arabic, Moorish (Maghribi), Syriac, Armenian,
' See, for example, Giorgio Levi della Vida,
Ricerche sulle formazione dcl piu antico fondo dei
manoscritti orientati della Biblioteca Vaticana (The Vatican, 1937), pls. 10/1; 9/1,2a; 13/3;
etc.
14 See G. W. Panzer, Anneles typogrephici ab _rtis inventae origine ad annum MD post
Maittarii Denisii aliorumque curas in ordinem redacti, emendavi et aucti (Nuremberg, 17931803), vol. 8, pp. 471 f. Mr. Richard S. Cooper of the University of California, Berkeley who
has worked on this problem independently, has indicated that imprints hearing the name of
Gregorio de Gregorii in Venice appeared there two weeks before the Fano imprint and again on
20 September, i.e., one week later.
15 Among the conjectures considered here were
Phanos, the island in the Ionian Sea, and Ban, a location 82 kms. southeast of Tripoli in
Lebanon, not far from the monastery of St. Anthony of Quzhaya, the birthplace of Karshuni
typography in the Middle East.
le Horatio F. Brown, The Venetian Printing Press
(London, 1871), p. 51 claims that "1469-1515 was the period before any legislation on the
subject of the press or the book trade had taken place." If this is so, certainly the usage led to
the actual legislation by at least two decades.
17 The documents were found and published by Rinaldo Fulin in "Documenti per servire alla
storia della tipografia veneziana," Archivio Veneto 12 (1882): 133f.
Indian (Abyssinian), and the "Barbary languages."18 This request was granted to Terracina for
a period of 25 years and gave him the exclusive right to publish in these languages and scripts
during this time, imposing a severe penalty of 200 ducats in gold and the loss of the books on
anyone infringing on this right. Twenty-four years later, i.e., one year before the expiration of
the monopoly granted to him, Terracina died without having published any books.
The second document dated 31 May 1513 concerns a petition of Lelio and Paolo Massimo,
nephews of Democrito, requesting a renewal of the monopoly in their name for another 25
years, claiming that their uncle had worked hard and had had heavy expenses without having
been able to reap the fruits of his labors. This request was likewise granted with the same
stipulations, including the stiff fine for violators as well as prohibiting exportation and other
transgressions of this patent.
As a result of this monopoly granted to Lelio and Paolo Massimo, no book is known to have been
published in these languages in Venice during this time, except two Armenian works which were
published in 1513, apparently during the short interval between the death of Terracina which
terminated the patent issued to him, and its renewal in May 1513 by his nephews.
Various authors speak of a press subsidized by Pope Julius II at Fano which supposedly produced
the work in question" with statements which are very doubtful. To date, no breve or bull, with
which appointments of this kind were made,20 nor even any correspondence relating to such a
press has been found which would confirm this assumption.
It has also been suggested that the press work was done by the rather versatile Jewish printer
Gershom Soncino, who printed a number of books in the area about this time, principally in
Fano, Ancona, and nearby Pesaro. This theory has some credibility since he published works not
only in Latin and Italian, but also in Hebrew as well. After checking the publishing record of
this printer, however, we find that between 1509 and 1515 Soncino lived in Pesaro, and no
books were issued with a Fano imprint during that time .21 Moreover, the first book by the
members of the Soncino family containing Arabic, namely the Polyglot Pentateuch published in
Constantinople in 1546, has the Arabic text expressed in small Hebrew characters.22 Had the
printers had Arabic type, surely they would have used it.
Gregorio de Gregorii, on the other hand, was also not unfamiliar with publishing Arabic works,
mostly Latin translations, to satisfy the insatiable demand of the period for works in the
sciences and medicine. Thus he printed, for example, Hispalensi's translation of al-Qabisi's
MudÍhal ila sanaat ahkam al-nujum in 1491, Ibn Zuhr's pharmacopoeia in the same year, and
Ibn Sina's Dc animalibus in about 1500. Moreover, the two arabesque ornamental borders used
in the work in question are found to have been
15 It should be noted here that Greek and Hebrew hooks were excluded from this patent, so that
hooks in the Greek language which were printed during that time were not illegal, while Hebrew
hooks were not published in Venice until Daniel Bomberg received permission in 1515. Shorter
passages, such as those appearing in Franeeseo Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphilii (Venice,
1499), although printed in languages covered by the patent, apparently were not considered
violations of that monopoly.
'5 See Hitti, First Reek, and after him 3. Kingsley
Birge, "The First Book Printed in Arabic," Moslem
World 33 (1943): 147; also J. 31. Lenart, "The First
Book Printed in Arabic Characters." American
Catholic Quarterly Review 4 (1917): 60.
25 See Stefano E. Assemani, Bibliothecae apostolicae Vaticanae: codicum manuscriptorum
catalogus (Paris, 1926), vol. 1, p. lxi, for the nomination of Phedrus to the Vatican Library by
breve of 17 July 1510.
21 See Giaeomo Manzoni, Annali tipografici dei
Soncino, vol. 1, pt. 2 (Bologna. 18s3), pp. 199 f.
22 David 5. Berkowitz, in Remembrance of
Creation (waltham, Mass., 1968), p. 102 (no. 176).
utilized in at least two other printings of Gregorio de Gregorii: Baptista da Crema's,
Via de aperta vita (Venice, 1523) (figs. 2 and 3) and Fridericus Nausea's In artem poeticen
primordia (Venice, 1522) (figs. 4 and 5); none of the Soncinati seem to have used these
borders.
It remains then to examine the paper used in the production of the work and to compare it with
the paper used in other printings of Gregorio de Gregorii and those of Gershom Soncino. In four
copies examined,23 the watermark-an anchor (fig. 6) appearing with astonishing regularity at
the top of the page close to the spine-was immediately
23 Copies of the watermark have graciously been supplied by Ms. Virginia H. Gibbons of
Princeton University Library, Prof. Enrico Gaibiati of the
Ambrosiana, Dr. Ernesto Milano of the Estense Library, and Drs. Hermanu Hanks and Hertrich
of the Bayeriache Staatsbibliothek.
identified by three persons as Briquet no. 436.24 A random check of some of the readily
available works printed by de Gregorii and Gershom Soncino has not turned up any anchor
watermarks in the paper used by either printer. However, Briquet definitely identifies the
paper as one used in Venice for petitions preserved in the Archivio de Stato.
Considering the preceding circumstantial evidence, it should not be unreasonable to accept the
following scenario regarding the printing of the first Arabic book. Gregorio de
Gregorii slated the publication of his Kitab salat al-sawai for 1514 or shortly after, the
expected expiration in that year of the 25-year patent granted to Terracina. The expiration of
that patent, however, having come to an end one year earlier by the grantee's death, found de
Gregorii, unlike the Armenian printer mentioned above, unprepared to issue the work at that
time. The patent having then again been renewed for
24 C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes: dictionnaire historique des marques de papier dès leur
apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600 (Paris, 1907), vol. 1, p. 40.
another 25 years for Terracina's nephews, however, made it impossible for the work to be
issued legally with a Venetian imprint when the work was completed as scheduled in 1514.
Rather than waiting for another 25 years for the new patent to expire, the printer decided to
publish the work with an imprint which included as the place of publication the name of a city
outside the Venetian Republic. He may have had in this tacit official approval since the book was
marked for export.25 That Fano, then situated in the Papal States, was selected is no surprise,
since the work was apparently printed at the behest of the papacy. That the Latin printed
preface prefixed to at least one copy has an imprint of its own: Venetiis Kal. Decembribus
MDXVII (1517), i.e., in the year the Venetian senate abrogated all the privileges heretofore
issued '26 could only strengthen the premise that the work was in fact printed in Venice.
25 It is significant that no copies of the hook are recorded held in Venice, Fano, nor even in the
Vatican Library.
26 See Leonardas V. Gerulaitis, Printing and
Publishing in Fifteenth-Century Venice (Chicago and London, 1976), p. 45.
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