Mobility, Change, and A Shared History

Abstract

It was only in 1727 that the first Turkish‑Muslim printing house was established by Ibrahim Müteferrika with the support of Sultan Ahmed III. It came into existence in Istanbul at the beginning of the eighteenth century during a peaceful interlude known as the Tulip Era – a brief period characterized by increasing consumerism, religious tolerance, interest in philosophy and openness to the West. Many reasons have been put forward for this late adoption: Sultanic firmans, opposition from scribes, lack of a market for printed texts, and the difficulty in printing Arabic script. What forms of mobility in print material and technology existed before 1727 in the Ottoman Empire, and how did they interact with the creation of a Turkish‑Muslim printing press during the Tulip Era? It was Rabbi Jacob ben Asher’s incunable of 1493 – "Four Rows" – that marked the inauguration of printing of any type in the Ottoman Empire. This text will be briefly analyzed, along with the ensuing centuries‑long Hebrew and Ladino print traditions, and finally their continuation through the Tulip Era. This article will frame the historical development of Jewish print culture in Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century while situating it within the international marketplace. The exchanges between the intercontinental Jewish print culture, the first Turkish‑Muslim printing house, and European intellectuals emphasize interconnectedness as well as the reimagination of the Tulip Era not as the initial thrust of Ottoman "modernization" but rather the amalgamation of previous technological and socioeconomic forces. Using Ottoman Jewish printing as a comprehensive example, "modernization" in the Ottoman Empire is shown to have occurred over many centuries, with its achievement the result of a blending of different coexisting cultures and trends.