This selection of papers by scholarly specialists offers an introduction to the history of the book and book culture in West Asia and North Africa from antiquity to the 20th century. The flourishing and long-lived manuscript tradition is discussed in its various aspects - social and economic as well as technical and aesthetic. The very early but abortive introduction of printing - long before Gutenberg - and the eventual, belated acceptance of the printed book and the development of print culture are explored in further groups of papers. Cultural, aesthetic, technological, religious, social, political and economic factors are all considered throughout the volume. Although the articles reflect the predominance in the area of Muslim books - Arabic, Persian and Turkish - the Hebrew, Syriac and Armenian contributions are also discussed. The editor’s introduction provides a survey of the field from the origins of writing to the modern literary and intellectual revivals.
This selection of papers by scholarly specialists offers an introduction to the history of the book and book culture in West Asia and North Africa from antiquity to the 20th century. The cultural, aesthetic, technological, religious, social, political and economic factors of the historical developments are considered throughout, and the articles di
Contents: Introduction; Part I General and Introductory: Islamic book
history: parameters of a discipline, Michael W. Albin; Of making many books
there is no end: the classical Muslim view, Franz Rosenthal. Part II
Manuscripts: The script and book craft in the Hebrew medieval codex, Malachai
Beit-Arié; Between the lines: realities of scribal life in the 16th century,
Cornell H. Fleischer; Early Islamic bookbindings and their Coptic relations,
Theodore C. Petersen; The human element between text and reader: the ijaza in
Arabic manuscripts, Jan Just Witkam; Technical practices and recommendations
recorded by classical and post-classical Arabic scholars concerning the
copying and correction of manuscripts, Adam Gacek; The copyists working
pace: some remarks towards a reflexion on the economy of the book in the
Islamic world, François Déroche. Part III Introduction of Printing: From the
manuscript age to the age of printed books, Muhsin Mahdi; A virgin deserving
Paradise or a whore deserving poison: manuscript tradition and printed books
in Ottoman Turkish society, Orlin Sabev (Orhan Salih); Mass producing houris
moles: or aesthetics and choice of technology in early Muslim book printing,
Ian Proudfoot; Medieval Arabic tarsh: a forgotten chapter in the history of
printing, Richard W. Bulliet; Islamic reformist discourse in the Tulip period
(1718-30): Ibrahim Müteferriqa and his arguments for printing, Stefan
Reichmuth; The beginnings of Hebrew printing in Egypt, Diana Rowland-Smith.
Part IV Printing Development and Print Culture: Hebrew printing houses in the
Ottoman empire, Yaron Ben Naeh; Arab booksellers and bookshops in the age of
printing, 1850-1914, Ami Ayalon; On the question of lithography, Brinkley
Messick; Rich men, poor men: Ottoman printers and booksellers making fortune
or seeking survival (18th-19th centuries), Orlin Sabev (Orhan Salih);
Functional perspectives on technology: the case of the printing press in the
Ottoman empire, J.S. Szy
Dr Geoffrey Roper is an editorial and bibliographical consultant. He was formerly head of the Islamic Bibliography Unit at Cambridge University Library, Editor of Index Islamicus and the World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, and Associate Editor of the Oxford Companion to the Book.
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