History

From the Mühendishane Press to the State Press: The Roots of ITU Publishing House

Assoc. Prof. Fatma SEL TURHAN - Coordinator of ITU Publishing House

The first printing press of the Ottoman State was established in 1727 through the personal initiatives of İbrahim Müteferrika, a convert of Transylvanian origin, and Yirmisekiz Çelebizade Mehmed Said Efendi. When Mehmed Said Efendi could not continue the work due to his official duties, İbrahim Müteferrika assumed all responsibility for the printing press until his death in 1747.[1] Although the privilege of the printing press passed to İbrahim Efendi, the Kadı of Rumelia whom he had trained, and Ahmed Efendi, one of the Kadıs of Anatolia, by the decree of Sultan Mahmud I after İbrahim Müteferrika's death, the printing press did not engage in any serious activity during this period. When the printing press became idle again upon the death of Kadı Ibrahîm Efendi, the French Embassy attempted to purchase all the tools and equipment of the printing press from İbrahim Efendi's heirs. Discouraged by this transfer of ownership of the first Ottoman printing press, Chronicler Ahmed Vasıf Efendi and Beylikçi Raşid Efendi applied to the Sublime Porte, stating that they wished to purchase the printing press from İbrahim Efendi's heirs, and they purchased the printing press with the permission they received from the sultan. The partnership between Vasıf Efendi and Raşid Efendi, who fell into a dispute after a while, ended in 1787 when Vasıf Efendi was appointed to the Spanish embassy, and when Raşid Efendi also gave up operating it over time, the printing press was completely closed.[2]

When the Imperial School of Military Engineering (Mühendishane-i Berrî-i Hümayun) was established in Hasköy in 1795 by order of Selim III, the need for a printing press to print the books required by the school also came to light, and as a solution, it was decided to purchase Raşid Efendi's printing press. In 1797, Raşid Efendi's printing tools and equipment, along with 316 volumes of printed books, were purchased for 7,500 cents (kurush) and transferred to the Mühendishane; the responsibility of the printing press was given to Abdurrahman Efendi, one of the instructors of the Mühendishane. Thus regaining functionality, the printing press was placed in the vacant rooms there as a part of the Mühendishane in Hasköy. While the printing press was improved with new materials, French typefaces were also purchased for the printing of French books taught at the Mühendishane. Another important development in this period was making the printing activities, which had been carried out with temporary workers until then, permanent with the employment of fifteen people; in this way, it would also be possible to train the necessary professionals. Furthermore, under the initiative of Abdurrahman Efendi, a Regulation (Nizamname) was drafted to make printing activities more systematic.[3] The first book printed at the press in 1797 was Mehâhü'l-miyâh, in which Âşir Efendizade Mehmed Hafîd Efendi described the waters of Istanbul.[4]

The Mühendishane Press, where 16 works were printed during the period it continued its operations,[5] was first moved to the Kapalı Fırın district in the inner parts of Cağaloğlu in 1802 due to lack of space; then, with the thought that the new location would also be insufficient, it moved to the Boyacı Inn belonging to the Selimiye Foundation in the Üsküdar Harem Pier region in May 1803, before it even became operational. With this relocation, its name also changed, and the printing press was henceforth referred to as Dârüttıbâati’l-Cedîde or the Üsküdar Press. Its status was also changed with the relocation, and an additional capital of 25,000 cents (kurush) was allocated to the printing press, transforming it into a public enterprise; thus, the salaries and expenses previously paid by the state would now be paid independently. The responsibility of the printing press was again given to Abdurrahman Efendi. Unlike the period when the printing press operated within the body of the Mühendishane, the new printing press would also operate in fields outside the scope of interest of the Mühendishane and would be the sole authority in the printing of all kinds of works.[6] The first book of the Üsküdar Press was Seyyid Mustafa's French work dated 1803, titled “Diatribe de l’ingénieur Mustafa sur l'état actuel de l’art militaire du génie et des sciences à Constantinople” [Reflections of Engineer Mustafa on the Current State of Military Engineering and Science in Constantinople].[7]

It is observed that the new printing press in Üsküdar continued its operations until the year 1807, but ceased its activities due to the financial difficulties it fell into in 1807. As a result of the investigation conducted by Reisülküttap Galip Efendi, who was assigned the task of investigating the situation of the printing press, a management change was made at the press, and Hüseyin Bey Efendi, the former deputy Defteremini, was appointed to replace Abdurrahman Efendi. However, the instability that began with the uprising against the Nizam-ı Cedid (New Order) and the deposition of Selim III deeply affected the printing press as well; after a one-year term of office, Hüseyin Bey Efendi was dismissed and replaced by Ali Efendi from the Hacegan and Hafız Mehmed Emin Efendi, the Imam of Doğancılar. The difficult conditions into which Istanbul fell continued with Alemdar Mustafa Pasha marching to Istanbul with a military army; subsequently, when the rebels targeted the newly established Sekbân-ı Cedîd army during the events that resulted in the deposition of Mustafa IV and the ascension of Mahmud II to the throne, the Selimiye Barracks fell completely victim to fire and looting. During the attacks, everything in the printing press, including the books, was either burned or plundered. When disputes between the partners were added to these problems, Ali Efendi handed over the business to his partner and left. Upon the death of Ali Efendi in 1817, the printing press changed hands once again; its owner this time was Rûznâmçe-i Evvel Abdurrahim Mühib Efendi, who would continue this duty until his death in 1821. However, Mühib Efendi's four-year administration brought no improvement to the situation of the printing press; on the contrary, the debt and losses increased exponentially.[8]

Following the passing of Mühib Efendi, the new administrator of the printing press became İbrahim Saib Efendi, the Superintendent of the Imperial Arsenal (Cephane-i Amire Nazırı). When the atmosphere created by the Greek uprising in 1821 reduced trust in the Greek subjects in Istanbul, Saib Efendi applied for the non-Muslim subjects working at the printing press to be replaced with Muslims; however, the Muslim population of Üsküdar showed no interest in printing works. In order to both meet the need for required personnel and overcome the transportation and communication difficulties brought by being far from the city, Saib Efendi proposed that the printing press be relocated back to the center of Istanbul. When this proposal received approval first from the grand vizier and subsequently from Mahmud II, it was decided to purchase the abandoned Kaptan İbrahim Pasha Bathhouse, located on the site of today's Istanbul University Central Library, and to relocate the printing press to the Walled City (Suriçi). By April 1824, the old bathhouse had been made ready for the relocation of the printing press, and the transfer process was completed in June 1824.[9] While the printing press continued its operations here, the mansion of Musa Agha, one of the former chief gatekeepers of the Sublime Porte (Dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşıları), located in a region close to the printing press, was purchased in August 1831 with the purpose of establishing a Newspaper House (Gazetehane), and Takvîm-i Vekâyi, the first Turkish newspaper, was published here on November 1, 1831. Shortly after the new arrangement, a change of administrator was also made, and in 1832, the administration of both the printing press and the newspaper was entrusted to Chronicler Esad Efendi with the title of Superintendent of the Imperial Takvîm-i Vekâyihâne and the Prosperous Printing House (Takvîm-i Vekâyihâne-i Âmire ve Tab‘hâne-i Ma‘mûre Nazırı). In the printing press, which began to be referred to as the Istanbul Press following the relocation from Üsküdar to the center, 117 works were printed in the sixteen years between 1824 and 1840. These works comprise a corpus spanning a wide spectrum such as catechism, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), hadith, Islamic theology (kalam), tenets of faith (akaid), language, rhetoric, dictionary, logic, sufism, literature, military affairs, natural sciences, code of laws, medicine, history, and geography.[10]

Over time, as the printing house's capacity could no longer meet the growing volume of work, relocating it once again came to the fore; indeed, a significant increase was observed in the use of printed documents by official institutions, in line with the modernizing and developing bureaucracy of the 19th century. Previously, within the walls of Topkapi Palace, a Kavâim-i Nakdiyye (Banknote) Factory had been constructed behind the old, burned finance building located within the Bâb-ı Hümâyûn (Imperial Gate) to print paper currency; however, when this decision was abandoned over time, the factory was left idle with all its machinery, presses, and other tools and equipment. It was decided to move both the printing house and the newspaper to this factory building, and through the efforts of the Minister of Education, İbrahim Edhem Pasha, the building was expanded and converted into a fully equipped printing house, with the said relocation taking place in 1852; its administration was entrusted to the second astronomer (müneccim-i sânî) Tâhir Efendi. Along with the new location, a name change was also introduced, and the printing house was renamed to Matbaa-i Âmire (Imperial Printing House). By 1862, it was decided that printing and journalism belonged to education rather than finance; thus, the administration of press affairs and Takvîm-i Vekâyi was transferred to the Ministry of Education (Maarif Nezâreti), and a Directorate of Press, subordinated to the Ministry of Education, was established on February 2, 1862. Under the new regulation, the Director of Press would be the person responsible for the administration of Matbaa-i Âmire and the regular publication of Takvîm-i Vekâyi. The name of the printing house remained Matbaa-i Âmire until the Second Constitutional Era, after which it took the forms of Matbaa-i Millî (National Printing House) and Matbaa-i Devlet (State Printing House). In the Republican era, it was converted into the State Printing House (Devlet Matbaası).[11] Although changes in the name and location of the printing house throughout Ottoman printing history have been presented by some researchers as the establishment of a completely new institution, this is inaccurate; for every relocation and name change occurred by inheriting the tangible and intangible accumulation of the past. Therefore, it would be more accurate to think of each printing house in Ottoman history not as an independent organization, but rather as the links of a chain that grew by connecting to one another.

A page from the work titled Atlas-ı Kebîr Tercemesi printed at the Üsküdar Press	Usûl-i Hendese ve Müsellesât printed at the Üsküdar Press. Source: Kemal Beydilli, “İstanbul Matbaaları (1453-1839),” 575.

An engraving from the 1798 Imperial School of Military Engineering Printing House (Mühendishane Matbaası) edition of Tableau des Nouveaux Réglemens de L’Empire Ottoman, prepared by Mahmud Raif Efendi to introduce the New Order (Nizâm-ı Cedîd) to foreigners. Source: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k853880w/f26.item.texteImage

References

[1] Kemal Beydilli, Türk Bilim ve Matbaacılık Tarihinde Mühendishâne, Mühendishâne Matbaası ve Kütüphânesi, 1776-1826 (İstanbul: Eren Yayıncılık, 1995), 99.

[2] Turgut Kut, "Dârüttıbâa," TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, 9. Cilt, 1994, 10-11.

[3] Kemal Beydilli, Türk Bilim ve Matbaacılık Tarihinde Mühendishâne, Mühendishâne Matbaası ve Kütüphânesi, 100, 126-127.

[4] Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Hatice Aynur, "Yazmadan Basmaya Geçiş: Osmanlı Basma Kitap Geleneğinin Doğuşu (1729-1848)," Osmanlı Araştırmaları, XXII, 2003, 230.

[5] A.g.e.

[6] Kemal Beydilli, Türk Bilim ve Matbaacılık Tarihinde Mühendishâne, Mühendishâne Matbaası ve Kütüphânesi, 136-137; Turgut Kut, "Dârüttıbâa," 11.

[7] Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Hatice Aynur, "Yazmadan Basmaya Geçiş: Osmanlı Basma Kitap Geleneğinin Doğuşu (1729-1848)," 230.

[8] Kemal Beydilli, Türk Bilim ve Matbaacılık Tarihinde Mühendishâne, Mühendishâne Matbaası ve Kütüphânesi, 138-143.

[9] Kemal Beydilli, a.g.e., 144-145; Kemal Beydilli, "İstanbul Matbaaları (1453-1839)," Antik Çağ'dan XXI. Yüzyıla Büyük İstanbul Tarihi (İstanbul: İstanbul Belediyesi Kültür A. Ş. Yayınları, 2015) Cilt 7, 576; Turgut Kut, "Dârüttıbâa," 11.

[10] Kemal Beydilli, "İstanbul Matbaaları (1453-1839)," 576.

[11] Turgut Kut, "Dârüttıbâa," 11; Gülden Sarıyıldız, "Takvimhâne," TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Ek-2. Cilt, 2019, 574; Serdal Soyluel, "Osmanlı Sanayisi Hizmetinde Kırk Yıl: İngiliz Mühendis Frederick William Taylor'un Hayat Hikâyesi (1807-1875)," Osmanlı Araştırmaları 55 (2020): 197-198.