Early Arabic Printing for the Arab Christians. Cultural Transfers between Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Near-East in the 18th century

The main objective of the Project is to examine the circumstances and outcomes of printing in Arabic with Arabic type in the 18th century Greater Syria (modern Syria and Lebanon), for Byzantine-rite and Catholic Arab Christians.

It addresses the connections between Eastern Europe and the Arab Christians of the Ottoman Empire and the social progress brought by the print culture.

It focuses on the transfer of printing technology from Moldavia and Wallachia (the Romanian Principalities) to the Ottoman provinces, for the benefit of the Arab Christians.

It aims to yield a systematic, detailed inventory of the Arabic books printed in 1701-1800 in the Romanian Principalities and Greater Syria.

Several other objectives are included: circumstances of the opening of Arabic presses in Ottoman-ruled provinces; the Antiochian Christians’ ties to Moldavia, Wallachia and Ukraine; the Western European printers’ support to Catholic Arabs; the role of printing in preserving Christian traditions and sanctioning the usage of Arabic in the Church; the contribution of printing to the Arab Renaissance (Nahḍa, 1820s).

Presses to be surveyed: in Moldavia and Wallachia, Snagov (1701), Bucharest (1702) and Iași (1743-1747); in Greater Syria, Aleppo (1705-1711), Deyr el-Shuweyr (1734-1800) and Beirut (1750-1753).

Other presses will be considered: Qozhaya (Lebanon), where a Book of Psalms was printed in 1610 in Syriac and Arabic (with Syriac type); and Istanbul, where a Turkish-language press worked after 1727 with Arabic type. The study corpus encloses forty-five books so far, with possible additions.

They will be surveyed in terms of their content (Greek and Syriac sources, Arabic versions and their authors, variations, printing programmes) and their form (formatting, iconography, ornaments, artistic influences).

The Project focuses on philological and codicological themes, addressing print culture, Christian Arabic literature and cultural transfers between Eastern Europe and the Arab East.