Stop the Press!

In my last blog post about the origins of printed law I briefly touched on how the advent of print in the Islamic world didn't have too much effect on their laws. This is because they followed Sharia law, which they believe to be a divine code set forth in the Quran and by the example of the prophet Muhammad. Because of the sanctity of law in their society, they were very much opposed to defiling their written traditions with the use of printing. In fact not only the printing of Islamic holy laws was forbidden, but the use of the printing press in general was strongly resisted. As a Middle Eastern studies major I thought this cultural conflict was rather fascinating, so that is what my blog post for this week will be about. This article turned out to be an invaluable source for researching this topic. Follow after the jump and see for yourself!

At the time of the invention of the printing press, the Turkish empire dominated the Islamic world. Shortly after the invention of the printing press, the Turkish Sultan Bāyazid II banned the possession of printed material in 1485. This early resistance to the practice of printing went on for centuries, this seemed very strange to me, and certainly to people of the Western world during that time, but Islamic leaders had their own reasoning for the rejection of this revolutionary technology.

In order to understand the intense aversion to the advent of print in the Muslim world, one must first understand how venerated writing was in their society. Islamic culture actually has its roots in a very strong oral tradition. Before the rise of Islam, the people of the Arabian peninsula had a vibrant oral culture based on recited poetry and stories, much like the bards of Europe. The Quran as we know it today began as an oration from Muhammad which spread across the Middle East in its purely auditory form, only years later was it transcribed to a written form. It was believed that the spoken word, especially of Muhammad and those closest to him in regards to religious texts, was the very source of truth, and in order for a written work to be seen as genuine it must be traced back to its beginnings in orality. This belief led to the establishment of arguably the most vibrant scribal cultural the world has ever seen. The transmission of knowledge in the Islamic world was seen as both an intellectual and religious pursuit, bringing great reverence to the act of copying and even beginning a tradition of omitting certain things from texts to ensure that only those who truly saught this knowledge would find it. To facilitate the difficult task of creating manuscripts an entire social class of "bookmen," along with the scribes, was created who transcribed, proofread, and bound these codices. This huge manuscript culture would thrive for over a millennium, even after the invention of the printing press.

A Quran manuscript

With those aspects of Islamic culture in mind, it's much easier to understand the seemingly puzzling resistance to the printed word by Muslim leaders. Abandoning their ancient manuscript tradition would be seen with abhorrence, as it would break the chain of authority of knowledge that could be traced back from book to book all the way to the original spoken word. Discontinuing the pious act of transcribing for printing was seen as an act of infidelity to the Islamic tradition. This would be especially heretical if something coming from the Christian world was being used to produce the Quran. An exclusion of ideas from the Western world can be traced back to the Crusades, and understandably so. Also, Muslims believed that the prized artistic beauty of their written word would be ruined by something so impersonal as a machine, and there would be severe socio-economic consequences for adopting print because it is estimated that at the time of its invention, there were about 80,000 scribes employed across the Islamic world that would lose their jobs. As the Ottoman empire weakened and Europe began encroaching on its territory in the 18th century print began to be accepted in Muslim lands, but at first only for secular texts, such as military reports, in hopes to slow the European advance. It seems that the use of print for military purposes led to the most acceptance of the practice because these countries were desperately trying to hold off the more advanced European nations, and would use any means necessary. Eventually the Islamic leaders began to accept printing of religious work, beginning in Iran and quickly leading to other nations throughout the 19th century. Following this development, printing proliferated across the Muslim world, and this led to a variety of social and economic changes just as it had in Europe centuries earlier.

A Muslim scribe

Arabic moveable type

I found it very interesting that the spread of printing in Europe and in the Middle East took almost opposite paths. In Europe printing began exclusively with religious texts and spread elsewhere, while in Islam printing was seen as a desecration of holy work. I think this has something to do with the history of the manuscript traditions in both regions, because in Europe, there was little literature to print other than religious writing. Whereas the Muslim world had a far more established scribal tradition, both religiously and in the secular realm. I also think it is because it came from Europe, which was viewed as inferior by the Ottomans when the press came about, not to mention the history of the crusades. Either way, I think its very interesting to see how changes in knowledge medium spread to other parts of the globe, besides the usual focus of Western Europe.