This is a topic of much heated historical debate. Some sources say that early on in the history of the printing press, the Ottomans banned this technology, and thus, ended up lagging behind Europe.
Other sources say that there wasn't an outright ban on the printing press in the Ottoman empire, but rather, it simply wasn't as popular as caligraphy among the Ottomans.
We're going to attempt to analyze this argument in this report.
[We don't know if it was intentially limited, but it was not developed. But Islam needs to set high standards for academics, as they did in Cairo and Baghdad in the middle ages. Does this raise questions about the Ottoman leadership of the Muslim world.]
The Impact of the Printing Press on the Intellectual and Religious Development of Europe:
Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press around 1436, although he was not the first to automate the book-printing process. Woodblock printing in China dates back to the 9th century and Korean bookmakers were printing with moveable metal type a century before Gutenberg.
Regardless of who invented it first, the development of the printing press in Europe in the 15th century was no doubt a massive game changer. This quickened the spread of knowledge, discoveries and literacy in the Rennaissance. This also played a major role in the Protestant Reformation. Once people could widely disseminate bibles printed in the local vernacular, this unleashed a major religious revolution.
Did the Ottoman Sultan Ban the Printing Press in the 15th Century?
One frequently cited statement about this situation is that Sultan Bayezid II in 1485 issued a firman, or edict, banning printing in Arabic characters, or perhaps the Arabic or Turkish languages, or perhaps printing outright. This is often mentioned alongside a follow-up edict by Selim I in 1515, which ostensibly confirmed the ban. However, there are other claims, that the historical veracity of this edict has not been well verified.
In a paper released by Chapman University in 2012, it was argued that although Mystakidis (1911: 324) mentioned the presence of such an edict in the first volume of Türk Tarih Encümeni Dergisi, the validity of this claim was quickly challenged by Efdaleddin (Tekiner) Bey (1916) in the same publication five years later on the grounds that the Ottoman archives do not house edicts prior to 1553, so there is no way to know for sure if this is a historical fact.
According to Dr. Anton Howes (a former lecturer in Economic History at King's College London), the historical records of sultans' edicts from the 15th century are patchy. Many of the historical testimonials we have on the topic from around that time period are from European sources that would have reason to be biased. He says the known Ottoman sources we have on the subject of printing were largely silent before the 18th century. Dr. Anton Howes states that the common source of the citation about the 1485 edict comes from a French writer called André Thevet, and a book he published in 1584 on the lives of famous people from history. He then specifically names Bayezid II as having published a proclamation in 1483 (not 1485, by the way) rather vaguely prohibiting “the use of printed books, on penalty of death”. Thevet also mentions the confirmation of the edict by his son and successor Selim I in 1515.
Dr. Anton Howes says the problem, however, is that Thevet is not an especially reliable observer. Thevet was accused, even during his lifetime, of being a charlatan and certainly plagiarist. And even more seriously he first mentioned the edicts when he was 82 years old — three decades after his visit to the Ottoman Empire.
So did the Ottoman sultans prohibit use of the printing press upon penalty of death? The answer to that question is unclear.
16th Century Arabic Books Published by Non-Muslims:
In Arabic, the placement of a letter in a word changes its appearance. For example, a letter can look differnet in the middle of a word from how it looks at the beginning or the end of a word. Some argue this is why printing didn't immediately take off in the Arabic language.
However, there were books being published in Arabic as far back as 1514 (American University of Beirut). The first book in Arabic was published in an Italian town named Fano in 1514. During those times, books in Arabic and Farsi were also published in Venice, Rome and Vienna.There were printing houses in Istanbul called "basmahane" in the 15th century. However, these printing houses were managed by Greek, Armenian and the Jewish community and they printed books in their own languages.
The First Muslim Printing Press in the Ottoman Empire Was Established in the 18th Century:
According to the historical information we have, the first printing press which belonged to the Muslims, is said to have been established by Ibrahim Müteferrika in 1727, during the Tulip Era when the Ottoman industrial revolution began. (Daily Sabah).
So it seems that Muslims were about two hundred years late to the game of publishing in the printed word. There are theories that up until then, it was discouraged in the Ottoman Empire for Muslims to print books. Others say it was because the Turks simply did not like books made in the publishing houses, but prefered the ones hand-written because caligraphy at the time was a highly appreciated art form.
"Ottoman intellectuals, who were keen on aesthetics, enjoyed books written with elegant handwriting and whose ink shined, along with edges that were ornamented with golden gilt and covers that were made with care. Reading books was not only a necessity, but also a pleasure. Besides, there were many calligraphy artists who copied plenty of books rapidly. All these people could be out of a job. On top of that, those who were keen on books belonged to a certain class, just as today. " (Daily Sabah).
Did Ottoman Islamic Clerics Intentionally Limit the Printing Press?
For those who are unfamiliar with Islamic terminology, ijtihad refers to the independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a legal solution to a question. This contrasts with taqlid, which is conforming to a legal precedent.
Some say that by the 14th century, the so-called "gate of ijtihad" in the Muslim world was closed, that Sunni scholars stated that the main legal questions had been addressed, and thus the scope of ijtihad was gradually restricted. Others argue that this was not the case.
The reason we bring this up, is because there is an argument made that over time the spirit of debate of intellectual scholarship that helped the Muslim world flourish in its golden age, started to stagnate and decline. And some argue this decline was fueled by a desire from clerics themselves to control the narrative.
"For centuries, printing was prohibited in Muslim societies because religious scholars feared that copies of the Qur’an would become commonplace, leading to the Muslim masses not just reading but interpreting the Holy Text. The consequences of these developments have been nothing short of catastrophic for Muslim societies." (Reading the Qur'an: The Contemporary Relevance of the Sacred Text of Islam by Ziauddin Sardar).
We will admit that as an organization we don't have all the answers on this issue about why printing was slow to gain steam among Muslims in the Ottoman Empire. There are many different debated speculations and theories. However, we do know the effects are that this unfortunately led to a decline of the intellectual development and spread of Islam as compared to its state between the 8th-13th century.
However, Islam today is the world's fastest growing religion. The new information revolution is the internet, where online copies of the Quran and Hadith literature are widely available. So perhaps things may change.
LINKS
Restrictions on the Printing Press (Cambridge, 3-16-17)
Myths and reality about the printing press in the Ottoman Empire (Daily Sabah, 6-8-15)
On the late adoption of the printing press in the Ottoman Empire (Sureshemre, 1-18-14)
Was the banning of the printing press contributory to Ottoman decline? (Islamiqate)
Print or not print: is that still the question? (The Aga Khan University)