The Amiri Press or Amiria Press ( ar, المطبعة الأميرية, المطابع الأميرية) (''Al-Matba'a al-Amiriya'') (also known as the Bulaq Press () due to its original location in

Bulaq Boulaq ( ar, بولاق, Būlāq from "guard, customs post"), is a district of Cairo, in Egypt. It neighbours Downtown Cairo, Azbakeya, and the River Nile. History The westward shift of the Nile, especially between 1050 and 1350, made land ava ...

) is a

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

, and one of the main agencies with which

Muhammad Ali Pasha Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha, also known as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan ( sq, Mehmet Ali Pasha, ar, محمد علي باشا, ; ota, محمد علی پاشا المسعود بن آغا; ; 4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849), was ...

modernized

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. The Amiria Press had a profound effect on

Egyptian literature Egyptian literature traces its beginnings to ancient Egypt and is some of the earliest known literature. Ancient Egyptians were the first to develop written literature, as inscriptions or in collections of papyrus, precursors to the modern boo ...

and intellectual life in the country and in the greater region, as scientific works in European languages were translated into Arabic.

History

The process began in 1815 when

, four years into his reign over Egypt, sent a mission to Milan to learn the craft of printing and type-founding, as well as purchase printing presses. The Amiria Press was established in 1820 and opened officially in the

neighborhood of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

during the reign of

in 1821. It published its first book in 1822: an Arabic-Italian dictionary prepared by the Syrian priest Anton Zakhūr Rafa'il. In the beginning, the press published military books for the Egyptian army, but it soon developed and started to print literary books, science books, and textbooks. It was also Cairo's most active and important Turkish-language press. '' Jurnal al-Khidiw'', first published 1821-1822, was the first printed Arabic periodical:

The ''Jurnal'', a bilingual Turkish-Arabic bulletin, was little more than a domestic circular intended for official consumption. With as run as small as 100 copies, it was designed for no other purpose than to keep the ''vali'' himself and his chief aides informed of state affairs. Handwritten at first, it was subsequently printed lithographically, appearing irregularly for a while before it became a weekly and later a daily publication.

The ''Jurnal'' was succeeded by ''Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya'', first published December 3, 1828, with a run of about 600 copies. It was not sold to the public, but rather printed irregularly and distributed to a chosen state elite. In the Tanzimat period (1839-1876), the Bulaq Press helped circulate the "unprecedented" volume of Islamic literature that was being translated into Ottoman Turkish. In October 1862, Muhammad Sa'id Pasha gave the press to Abdurrahman Bik Rushdi. It was then purchased by

Isma'il Pasha Isma'il Pasha ( ar, إسماعيل باشا ; 12 January 1830 – 2 March 1895), was the Khedive of Egypt and conqueror of Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of Great Britain. Sharing the ambitious outlook of his gran ...

who added it to the Da'ira Sunnia (الدائرة السنية), or the royal possessions. Publications in this time included a

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

with commentary by

Al-Zamakhshari Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian peoples, Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca, Makkah and settled there for five years and has been known since then as Jar Allah ‘God's Ne ...

.Brockett, Adrian Alan,
Studies in two transmissions of the Qur'an
', p11 The Amiria Press returned to the possession of the state in 1880, during the reign of

Tewfik Pasha Mohamed Tewfik Pasha ( ar, محمد توفيق باشا ''Muḥammad Tawfīq Bāshā''; April 30 or 15 November 1852 – 7 January 1892), also known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Egypt and the Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the sixth rule ...

. In 1905, the Amiri Press developed a new naskh-based typeface for body text. It served as the primary inspiration for the Amiri font, a naskh script designed by Dr. Khaled Hosny for typesetting

body text __NOTOC__ The body text or body copy is the text forming the main content of a book, magazine, web page, or any other printed or digital work. This is as a contrast to both additional components such as headings, images, charts, footnotes etc. on ...

. In 1924 they published the iconic 1342 Cairo text, or King Fu'ad Quran—the first printed edition of the Quran to be accepted by an Islamic authority:

Al-Azhar Mosque Al-Azhar Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأزهر, al-Jāmiʿ al-ʾAzhar, lit=The Resplendent Congregational Mosque, arz, جامع الأزهر, Gāmiʿ el-ʾazhar), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the histori ...

. A large number of pre-1924 Qurans were destroyed by dumping them in the River Nile.

Reynolds, GS Gabriel Said Reynolds is an American academic and historian of religion, who serves as Jerome J. Crowley and Rosaleen G. Crowley Professor of Theology and Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. His sch ...

''Introduction: Qur’anic studies and its controversies'' On August 13, 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser passed Law 312 of 1956 ordering the establishment of the Amiria Press Authority under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Trade & Industry. The first meeting of its administration—headed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry's administrator at the time, Aziz Sedky—was held on September 1, 1956. The ministry later decided to build a new 35,000 m2 building for the Amiria Press Authority, and equip it with state-of-the-art printing technology to spread its messages. The Amiria Press Authority officially began operations at its new location on July 28, 1973 during the

Sadat Sadat ( ar, سادات) is a suffix, which is given to families believed to be descendants of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. In Iran, after the revolution, it is mandatory to mention "Seyed" or "Sadat" in the names of or whose descent from Muham ...

administration under Ibrahim Salem Muhammadin, Minister of Trade and Industry at the time.

Publications of the Amiria Press Authority

* : the official state-run newspaper, published every Thursday * '' Al-Waqa'i' al-Masriyya'' (Egyptian Affairs): the oldest newspaper in Egypt, published as an appendix of the Official Journal and published daily except Fridays and holidays * Other publications—government publications, legal books, calendars, and the Sherif Quranic Press

Gallery

File:Machine Envelope Printer.jpg, This envelope printing machine was one of the machine presses at the Bulaq Press. It was renovated during the reign of

Khedive Ismail Isma'il Pasha ( ar, إسماعيل باشا ; 12 January 1830 – 2 March 1895), was the Khedive of Egypt and conqueror of Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of Great Britain. Sharing the ambitious outlook of his gran ...

. Purchased in 1869, the British-made printer was used to print all kinds of envelopes. It is present now in the Library of Alexandria.

External links

Amiria Press (Arabic)

- Library of Alexandria

References

''Content in this edit is translated from the existing Arabic Wikipedia article at :ar:المطابع الأميرية; see its history for attribution.'' {{Authority control Mass media in Cairo History of Egypt (1900–present) Publishing companies established in the 1820s Publishing companies of Egypt State media * Government agencies of Egypt