Pioneering Ottoman publisher remembered in Istanbul

The founder of the first movable type printing press in the Ottoman Empire was remembered in Istanbul Tuesday, 272 years since he passed away.

Hungarian-born Ottoman publisher Ibrahim Muteferriqa was commemorated at Galata Mawlavi House in Istanbul, where his gravesite is located, with a ceremony held by the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.

Muteferriqa, who was born in 1674 and died in 1745, holds a very important place in our culture, education, faith, and art history, said Coskun Yilmaz, provincial director of culture and tourism.

"We know him as the founder of the first publishing house of the Ottoman Empire, but Muteferriqa's publishing was no ordinary publishing activity," Yilmaz said.

After getting official authorization, the press published its first book in 1729, and by 1743 had produced thousands of volumes.

It was a multi-pronged cultural move to make the Ottoman Empire and society improve and to expand the use of books and libraries at that time, said Yilmaz.

"When we look at his publications, he was printing publications that sought solutions by thinking about the situation Ottoman society was in," Yilmaz noted.

Muteferriqa, who was a Unitarian as well as a historian, diplomat, and economist, converted to Islam in his twenties after reading a verse in vintage texts talking about the Prophet Muhammed.