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

Bulaq Boulaq ( 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 available on its eastern si ...

) is a

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

, and one of the main agencies with which Muhammad Ali Pasha modernized

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. The Amiri Press had a profound effect on Egyptian literature 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 Muhammad Ali Pasha, 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 Amiri Press was established in 1820 and opened officially in the

neighborhood of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

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 a 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 The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...

period (1839–1876), the Bulaq Press helped circulate the "unprecedented" volume of Islamic literature that was being translated into

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

. 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 ( ; 25 November 1830 or 31 December 1830 – 2 March 1895), also known as Ismail the Magnificent, was the Khedive of Egypt and ruler of Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of Great Britain and France. Shari ...

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

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

with commentary by Al-Zamakhshari.Brockett, Adrian Alan,
Studies in two transmissions of the Qur'an
', p11 The Amiri Press returned to the possession of the state in 1880, during the reign of

Tewfik Pasha Mohamed Tewfik Pasha ( ''Muḥammad Tawfīq Bāshā''; April 30 or 15 November 1852 – 7 January 1892), also known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt and the Turco-Egyptian Sudan, Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the s ...

. 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 2011 naskh script designed by Dr. Khaled Hosny for typesetting body text. In 1924 it 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. A large number of pre-1924 Qurans were destroyed by dumping them in the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. Reynolds, GS ''Introduction: Qur’anic studies and its controversies'' On August 13, 1956,

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

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 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

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 Bulaq Press