Manuscript and Print in the Islamic Tradition
Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter (2022), viii, 374 pp.
Contains index
Series: Studies in Manuscript Cultures, 26
ISBN 978-3-11-077603-4 (print); 978-3-11-077648-5 (pdf)
"This volume explores and calls into question certain commonly held assumptions about writing and technological advancement in the Islamic tradition. In particular, it challenges the idea that mechanical print naturally and inevitably displaces handwritten texts as well as the notion that the so-called transition from manuscript to print is unidirectional. Indeed, rather than distinct technologies that emerge in a progressive series (one naturally following the other), they frequently co-exist in complex and complementary relationships – relationships we are only now starting to recognize and explore. The book brings together essays by internationally recognized scholars from an array of disciplines (including philology, linguistics, religious studies, history, anthropology, and typography) whose work focuses on the written word – channeled through various media – as a social and cultural phenomenon within the Islamic tradition." (Publisher description)
PART I
Overlooked: The Role of Craft in the Adoption of Typography in the Muslim Middle East / Titus Nemeth, 21
The Ottoman System of Scripts and the Müteferrika Press / J. R. Osborn, 61
The Official Urge to Simplify Arabic Printing: Introduction to Nadim’s 1948 Memo / Kathryn A. Schwartz, 89
Muhammad Nadim’s 1948 Memo on Arabic Script Reform: Transcription and Translation / Mahmoud Jaber, J.R. Osborn, Kathryn A. Schwartz, Natalia K. Suit, 97
PART II
Calligraphic Masterpiece, Mass-Produced Scripture: Early Qur’an Printing in Colonial India / Ulrike Stark, 141
Cermin Mata (‘The Eyeglass’): A Mid-Nineteenth-Century Missionary Journal from Singapore / Holger Warnk, 181
‘The Ink of Excellence’: Print and the Islamic Written Tradition of East Africa / Scott Reese, 217
Early Ethiopian Islamic Printed Books: A First Assessment with a Special Focus on the Works of shaykh Jamal al-Din al-Anni (d. 1882) / Alessandro Gori, 243
Printing and Textual Authority in the Twentieth-Century Muridiyya / Jeremy Dell, 271
‘Printed Manuscripts’: Tradition and Innovation in Twentieth-Century Nigerian Qur’anic Printing / Andrea Brigaglia, 289
Technology and Local Tradition: The Making of the Printing Industry in Kano / Sani Yakubu Adam, 337
Overlooked: The Role of Craft in the Adoption of Typography in the Muslim Middle East / Titus Nemeth, 21
The Ottoman System of Scripts and the Müteferrika Press / J. R. Osborn, 61
The Official Urge to Simplify Arabic Printing: Introduction to Nadim’s 1948 Memo / Kathryn A. Schwartz, 89
Muhammad Nadim’s 1948 Memo on Arabic Script Reform: Transcription and Translation / Mahmoud Jaber, J.R. Osborn, Kathryn A. Schwartz, Natalia K. Suit, 97
PART II
Calligraphic Masterpiece, Mass-Produced Scripture: Early Qur’an Printing in Colonial India / Ulrike Stark, 141
Cermin Mata (‘The Eyeglass’): A Mid-Nineteenth-Century Missionary Journal from Singapore / Holger Warnk, 181
‘The Ink of Excellence’: Print and the Islamic Written Tradition of East Africa / Scott Reese, 217
Early Ethiopian Islamic Printed Books: A First Assessment with a Special Focus on the Works of shaykh Jamal al-Din al-Anni (d. 1882) / Alessandro Gori, 243
Printing and Textual Authority in the Twentieth-Century Muridiyya / Jeremy Dell, 271
‘Printed Manuscripts’: Tradition and Innovation in Twentieth-Century Nigerian Qur’anic Printing / Andrea Brigaglia, 289
Technology and Local Tradition: The Making of the Printing Industry in Kano / Sani Yakubu Adam, 337
