The Early History of Printing in the Ottoman Empire through the Prism of Mobility

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the early stage of printing in the Ottoman Empire, focusing on mobile actors, tools and ideas. Which role did mobility play in the life of printers? How did it influence their professional life and how was it reflected in prefaces or afterwords of their printed books? The first Jewish, Serbian, Armenian, Greek and Muslim printers in the Ottoman Empire were foreign-born (Spain, Italy, England, France). Many of them had to remain mobile within and beyond the empire in order to escape persecution, religious censorship, business competition etc. Where did the knowledge of printing come from and how did it circulate? Were there any contacts between printers of different religious backgrounds and what role did the question of language and multilingualism play? By introducing case studies that originate from the early phase of printing in the Ottoman Empire (Sephardic legal code ʾArbaʿa Ṭurim, Constantinople 1493) until the first decades of the eighteenth century (İbrāhīm Müteferriḳa’s printing activities), this article will mainly focus on the aspect of mobility in a Transottoman context. It will show the role of networks and connections between the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Europe for the development and spreading of book printing among Ottoman Jews and Christians.