>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
[ Silence ]
>> I wish to welcome
you all on behalf
of the African Middle
Eastern Division.
Our chief, Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb
and all of my colleagues,
I wish you the warmest of welcomes
for what will be I think a
very interesting presentation
this afternoon.
I'm Chris Murphy.
I'm the head of the
Near East section
in the African Middle
Eastern Division.
The division is made
up of three sections,
the African section whose staff
is concerned with the development
of the collection from and
about Sub-Saharan Africa,
the Hebraic section whose staff
is concerned with the collection
of Hebraic material and
Judaic material worldwide
and the Near East section.
The Near East section
staff is the responsible
for building the collection,
developing the collection from
and about all of the Arab countries,
Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan,
Turkey and the Turkic
countries of Central Asia
and the Muslim populations
in western China,
Russia and the Balkans or as I've
said a number of times our purview,
the Near East sections purview
stretches from Casablanca
in the west to Kashgar in
the east and from Khartoum
in the south to Kazan in the north.
I mention the collection development
responsibilities and the tasks
of the staff of this division.
The second and equally
important task is
to make the collection available
and I'm not meaning in the sense
of organizing and processing and
cataloging it, rather I mean working
with scholars from the simple
[inaudible] interviews,
oh you need this book
on this subject to oh,
you have this research project now
let's consider how this library
and this division can
help you and part
of our making the collection
better known is through outreach
and there are a number of
different methodologies
of outreach including symposia.
This coming August 4th we have
an all day symposium focusing
on the life and works of the
Sudanese Arab author Tayeb Salih
and we also organize these the
noontime lectures although this
particular lecture and a
number of others attached
to it are rather special and I
will get to that in a moment.
But often these noontime
lectures are given by scholars
who have been working here in
the division on research projects
and often have produced a
book or a significant article
and then they speak
about the results
of their research conducted here
which again provides a better idea
to the general public because
we do videotape these lectures
of what we do here.
Now today's lecture and my colleague
here Jardine Navari will introduce
Dr. Marzolph but I want to
say a couple of things just
in general about the this program.
This lecture as a number of others
that have been presented
runs concurrently
with the One Thousand Years of
the Persian Book Exhibit that is
over on the other side
of the building
and if you have not viewed it
I strongly suggest that you do.
It's a splendid exhibit.
Now Dr. Fatemah Keshavarz from the
Roshan Persian Studies Institute
at the University of Maryland
was kind enough to work with one
of the institute's benefactors
Dr. Amir Jalali [assumed spelling]
to find funding to bring scholars
who are prominent in the world
of Persian language, literature and
cultural studies to present here
and today's preparation is one of
those and I wish to thank Fatemeh
and the University of
Maryland and Dr. Amir Jalali
and the Roshan Institute for
making this all possible.
Now I would like Gerard
to come forth
and introduce today's lecturer.
>> Thank you Chris.
I want to thank you all for
coming on a very hot day
in the middle of the day.
I appreciate taking time
and attending this
very important lecture.
Most importantly our guest
speaker has flown in from Germany.
He's only here for 24 hours
and he flies out tomorrow.
It's a huge honor for us and of
course anyone that's familiar
with Iranian printing culture,
lithographic culture knows Dr.
Marzolph for his great works.
I'm going to read a quick
biography because I don't want
to take too much of his time.
We are looking forward
to his presentation
and he has given a talk
here before but I'm going
to quickly give another overview
of his distinguished career.
Dr. Ulrich Marzolph is a
professor of Islamic Studies
at the Georg-August
University in Gottingen, Germany
and a senior member of the Editorial
Committee of the Encyclopedia
of Folktales, a research
and publishing institution
at the Academy of Sciences
at Gottingen.
He specializes in the narrative
culture of the Islamic Near
and Middle East with a
particular emphasis on Arab
and Persian folk narrative, popular
literature and related fields.
Among other interests, Dr.
Marzolph is the pioneer in the study
of lithographed books in
Iran, Narrative Illustration
in Persian Lithographed Books.
Here it is.
We have our copy by Brill and he
has also this was published in 2001.
He's also internationally renowned
specialist on the "Thousand
and One Nights," "The
Arabian Nights"
and he has done several
works, one of them is the
"Arabian Nights Encyclopedia"
with Richard van Leeuwen.
In 2004 "The Arabian Nights Reader,"
2006 "The Arabian Nights
Transitional Perspective,"
2007 "Arabian Nights Bibliography"
which is an online thing in 2010.
He's also involved in producing
works in Persian, [foreign language]
and lithographic works as well as
other lithographic works in Persian
that have been reprinted by him.
Here is the lovely album
and [inaudible] in Persian
that was produced in Iran
and without taking any further
time I would like to say
that it is a huge honor
for us to have you here.
Thank you very much for flying
all the way from over there
and coming here and
giving us your time.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Thank you Chris, thank you
Gerard for the kind invitation.
Thank you Mary-Jane for having
me here a second time in just
over a year and of course a big
thank you for Fatemeh Keshavarz
who unfortunately could not be here
for making this tour
possible by inviting me over.
It's a great pleasure to
be here and thank you all
for being here despite
the hot weather.
I know it's a challenge to go
out walking on the streets.
Now today's talk is about printed
materials in 19th century Iran,
the printing press as an
agent of tradition in Iran.
If everything goes well I should
just bear your patience for about 45
to 50 minutes so that there
will be hopefully some time
for Q and A if you want.
The Prince Consort National Memorial
in London's Kensington Gardens
which you'll see here
situated directly to the north
of the Royal Albert Hall has
been erected in commemoration
of Queen Victoria's husband,
Prince Albert who died
of typhoid fever in 1861.
Unveiled in 1872 the monument
centrally placed pavilion built
in the gothic revival style
is surrounded by two sets
of four allegorical sculptures each.
The sculptures at the four corners
of the central area depict Victorian
industrial arts and sciences,
that is, agriculture, commerce,
engineering and manufacturing
and those at the corners
of the outer area represents
the continents Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas
thus qualifying the monument
to quote Iranian historian
[unknown foreign name]
as the ultimate British
colonial representation.
Each sculpture representing a corner
of the globe includes
several ethnographic figures
and a large animal.
The Asia group here on
the far right designed
by John Henry Foley shows a
prostrate elephant that according
to official history is intended
to typify the subjection
of brute force to human
intelligence.
The elephant is surrounded
by four human figures representing
major ethnic groups of Asia.
There's a seated Chinese
and a standing Arab
to the elephant's right side here on
the left just behind the elephant.
An Indian woman with bare breasts
seated on the elephant and a Persian
to the animal's left
side here on the right.
Presented as a stereotype the
Persian is depicted in the likeness
of Mizra Saleh Shirazi a character
well-known in contemporary London
as former Iranian ambassador
in or shortly before 1823.
It is this person that links
the Albert Memorial to the topic
of my presentation since Mizra Saleh
had already been to England in 1815
to '19 and had then
played a major role
in the introduction
of printing to Iran.
The available documentation does
not discuss the sculptor's source
of inspiration.
Meanwhile the book, the Persian
man holds in his left hand
and two books lying on the ground
next to his feet might indicate
that the sculptor's
choice of Mizra Saleh
as his model Persian was
not totally haphazard.
In other words, that the
sculptor was perfectly aware
of Mizra Saleh's prominent role
in the introduction
of printing to Iran.
Now it is well-known that printing
as a permanent cultural practice
introduced to the culture
of Iran only during the second
decade of the 19th century.
Alluding to Elizabeth
Eisenstein's highly inventional book
"The Printing Press as an
Agent of Change" published
in 1979 the slightly
provocative title
of my presentation
certainly does not intend
to subvert Eisenstein's main thesis.
Meanwhile it is well-known
that Eisenstein's thesis
about the social, cultural and
political impact of printing needs
to be modified when we
look at regions other
than early modern Europe.
As for the historiography of
printing in the Muslim world,
Geoffrey Roper has voiced the
reluctance of some scholars
to follow in total
Eisenstein's model
of precipitate induced modernity.
In the context of the present
discussion we also need to take
into consideration that
Iran is rarely included
in general discussions of
the history of printing
and publishing in the Muslim world.
The vast majority of which
focused either on Ottoman,
Turkey where Ibrahim Muteferrika
1674 to 1745 was the first Muslim
to run a printing press with
moveable type or else printing
in the Arab world where the
printing press was first introduced
or in Napoleon's Egyptian's
Campaign, 1798 to 1801.
I apologize for this image which
is not really linked to printing
but at least it is
linked to Napoleon.
To make my intention even clearer
there is no doubt that similar
to many other world regions in the
long run printing effected Iran
to the advantage of scientific
progress and the dissemination
to a growing range of
publicly available knowledge.
In particular, the publication of
newspapers had a considerable effect
on the ensuing cultural
and political developments.
The first Persian language newspaper
was Mizra Saleh's short-lived
Kaghaz-e-Akhbar in 1837 and
probably the best known newspaper
for the Qajar period is the
[indistinguishable foreign name] a
title that can vaguely be translated
as Daily Paper and Current Events,
published under various
names from 1851 to 1906.
I also do not intend to question the
fact that the printing of manuals
of instruction advanced
the dissemination
of knowledge even though knowledge
at the newly established
[indistinguishable name] the
Poly-Technical College in Iran
was primarily sought in the art
of warfare and related sciences,
a preference that historically
was due you
to the repeated defeats
the Qajars experienced
from the Russian Army
early in the 19th century.
But rather than exploring
the well-trodden path
that reprinting has furthering
the dissemination of knowledge
and hence advancing scientific
and culture progress I would here
like to explore the extent to
which the printing press acted
as an agent of tradition in Iran.
While this aspect overlaps to a
certain extent with the situation
in early modern Europe its
long-term effects are still visible
in contemporary Iran.
What tradition and
particularly interpretation
of history along the lines
of 12 Shi'a Islam today plays a
major political and cultural role.
In exploring the role
of the printing press
in Qajar Iran I suggest
to approach the topic
from three different angles.
After short general introduction
into the history of printing in Iran
and an equally short specification
of the terminological ambiguities
that we need to keep in mind I
will first have a closer look
at the content of the incunables
printed during Iran's first
experimental phase of
printing from movable type
in the years 1817 to 1858.
Second, I will discuss the range
of books available at the beginning
of the second half
of the 19th century
and the connected problems
faced by scholarship aiming
at an adequate bibliographical
assessment of the output of printing
in the Qajar period and third
I would draw your attention
to the fact that printing in
Qajar Iran resulted in more
than the printing of
book and newspapers.
All together my presentation aims to
argue that for a considerable period
of time after the introduction
of printing
to Iran the new technique
resulted in the dissemination
and solidification of
traditional values rather
than in the advancement of change.
As for the history of printing in
Iran and as history of printing
and printing establishments
in Iran 1999 Persian scholar Hosein
Mizra Golpayegani has defined four
main periods first from the
introduction of printing in 1817
to the Constitutional
Revolution 1906,
from the Constitutional
Revolution to the abdication
of the Shah Reza Pahlavi in 1941.
Then from the enthronement
of Moammed Reza Pahlave 1941
to the Islamic Revolution 1979 and
last period from the Revolution
to the present day that is the
period of the Islamic Republic.
The focus of this schematic
periodization
on political events
implies a direct correlation
between political history
and technical culture
and social developments.
Instead of arguing in
detail the extent to which
such implications make sense
of do not make sense I will
here have a closer look
at the early period of
printing in Iran independent
of political developments
during the Qajar era.
I suggest to split this early
period into four phases each
of which is characterized
by differences
of printing techniques either
printing from moveable type
that is typography or lithography.
First we have the period from
the introduction of printing
from moveable type in 1817 to the
introduction of lithography in 1833.
Then we have the period from
the introduction of lithography
to the end of the first
period of typography 1858.
The third period ranges
from 1858 to '74
where exclusively lithography
was practiced in Iran
and a fourth period ranges from the
reintroduction and the establishment
of typography in 1874 to the end
of lithography which occurred
about the middle of
the 20th century.
For each of these periods I would
like to mention just a
few contextual details.
The history of printing in Iran
begins as I have already mentioned
with decision of reformist Crown
Prince Abbas Mirza to send a number
of junior civil servants to Europe
on technological missions in 1815.
Mizra Saleh arrived in England
originally with the aspiration
to study at Oxford University.
When that plan did not
materialize he apprenticed himself
to the oriental language
printer typesetter
and typecaster Richard Watts and
in 1819 returned to Iran together
with a simple printing press
most probably a Stanhope Press
which you see here
on the right side.
Due to the recent introduction of
steam powered presses in London
in that period Stanhope
Presses had flooded the market
and were available at what we
might consider a reasonable price
meanwhile another student Mizra
[foreign name] had been sent
to St. Petersburg to
learn the art of printing.
[foreign name] had returned to
Iran sooner than Mizra Saleh also
with full equipment for
printing from moveable type.
In 1817, [inaudible] published the
first Persian book ever printed
in Iran a book called [foreign name]
containing a collection of fatwas
that had been issued during the
Russian-Iranian war 1804 to 1813.
American Islamicist Nile Green
has noted that the fonts used
for printing this item are
closely similar to those used
for the Persian New
Testament printed in 1815
by the Russian Bible Society in
St. Petersburg, a society founded
by British evangelicals and
as a matter of fact the link
between evangelical
movements and the introduction
of printing to Iran is fascinating.
There's a lot more to say about
that which I have to skip here.
Supporting the war against
the infidel Russians
as a religious duty the fatwas
had been collected by orders
of Mirza Abbas since 1808.
The contemporary importance of
this first ever printed publication
in Iran is highlighted by the fact
that a second edition was
published just a year later,
constituting the second
printed book in Iran.
The second phase of printing in Iran
is ushered in with the publication
of the first lithograph book,
a Qur'an published in 1833.
This Qur'an had for many times
only been known from citations
in secondary literature and a single
copy has only been recently come
to light and is now preserved in
the Parliament Library in Tehran
so there is extremely rare.
The second phase of the earliest
printing in Iran includes the number
of important events in the history
of printing such as the publication
of the first Persian language
newspaper the Kaghaz-e-Akhbar
published by Mirza Saleh.
The first lithograph item containing
illustrations is the 1843 edition
of "Leili va Majnun."
This book was soon
followed by a large number
of illustrated lithograph
books and a highlight
of this genre is a book I always
like to show the 1848 edition
of "Khamse-ye-Nezami"
that is particularly famed
for [inaudible] detailed and
lively illustration of the process
of lithographic printing and
just to give you a vague idea
of what you're seeing here
you have to read the picture
from bottom right and follow
on the margin on the top
and then turn to the middle.
Down at bottom right you see a guy
who is obviously active distilling
the acid that is necessary
for preparing the stone
used for printing.
On the left side you see a
guy rounding the material
for preparing the ink then
you have various stages
of preparing the stone
like smoothing the edges
or polishing the stone
and the finally you have the servant
carrying the stone up to the studio
where the chief of the studio
is smoking his hookah while one
of his employees is
working to prepare a book.
And of course in the lower half
of the middle you see this beautiful
image of the printing press very,
very detailed and very
faithful to the actual depiction
of what a printing press,
lithographic printing press
in those days looked like.
The year 1851 witnessed the
establishment of the Dar al-fonun,
the Tehran Poly-Technical College
that was to publish a number
of important manuals of instruction
as already mentioned above all
in the art in the modern
art of warfare.
All the books published at
the Dar Al-fonun were printed
by lithography.
The second phase of printing in
Iran peters out with additions
of popular martyr logical work
"Tufan al-boka," "The Deluge
of Tears" printed from moveable
type in 1856, '57 and '58.
After that in the third
phase of printing in Iran we
so far do not know of
a single book printed
from moveable type
for about 15 years.
This is a page of Tufan
al-boka and the fourth degree
and final phase then begins
with the 1874 publication
of [indistinguishable name]
"Travelogue to Europe."
Notably this book was
printed in Istanbul with a set
of moveable type different
from the ones previously used.
Now this condensed survey of
the early history of printing
in Iran may serve to
discuss various issues.
For the present purpose
I'm particularly interested
in two points.
The first of these points
is the ambiguous meaning
of the term printing press
in the Iranian context.
As we've seen printing was
first introduced to Iran
as printing from moveable type.
The period of incunables in Iran
lasted for a well-defined period
of 42 years dating 1817 to 1858
and resulted in the publication
of a total of about 60 items.
Since many of these items
have only come to light
in recent years our knowledge about
the actual amount of books printed
from moveable type is bound to
increase as research proceeds.
But even so it appears that
the amount of books printed
from moveable type was modest at
best averaging two books per year.
For a number of social
culture reasons books printed
from moveable type
were soon outnumbered
and in fact ousted
by lithograph books.
The art of lithography invented
by Alois Senefelder at the end
of the 18th century and
introduced to Iran by way
of Russian essentially made it
possible to produce multiple copies
of items written by hand thus,
in technical terms
permitting the continuation
of traditional practices
of manuscript production.
So in the Iranian context the term
printing press has two specific
meanings, moreover the two different
ways of printing did not only differ
in terms of technique they
also implied a different range
of production both as for
the amount of books produced
and in terms of their content.
The limited and clearly
defined amount
of Iranian incunables enables us
to assess these books
in terms of content.
As a matter of fact
the vast majority
of Iranian incunables have what I
call a distinct [inaudible] slant.
Out of five works without a distinct
[inaudible] tendency three items
pertain to the range of
classical literature that is,
the works of classical
poet [indistinguishable].
One item is a work of history namely
[indistinguishable foreign name] a
contemporary work about Qajar
history and the final item is a work
of modern medicine that is [foreign
name], "Teaching the Practice
of Smallpox Vaccination" [foreign
name] All other incunables are
concerned with [indistinguishable
foreign name] religion
in one way or another.
The first book ever printed
in Iran we already mentioned
[inaudible] is a collect
of fatwas reporting of the war
against the infidel
Russians as a religious duty.
The Qur'an was printed from
moveable type at least nine times.
A particular interesting item is the
[foreign name] a work whose title
has been most often vocalized
erroneously though temptingly I
should say as either [foreign
name] or even [foreign name] a book
that was printed four times.
This work whose original
compilation probably goes back
to the 16th century is a
[foreign name] version of a tale
about a learned dispute between an
educated woman and the religious
and legal authorities in
the days of [foreign words].
Probably the best known
version of this tale is the one
of [foreign names] in "The
Thousand and One Nights."
Although the Tale of [foreign name]
is presented as being translated
from the Arabic this feature is
probably just a literary device a
trope intended to claim authority.
Recent research suggests
that this Tale
of [foreign name] was
compiled even prior to the Tale
of [foreign name] supporting
the assumption
that the latter constitutes a
Sunni response to Shi'a propaganda.
Theological, philosophical
and ethical works
by 17th century [foreign
name] scholar [foreign name]
who still today is still regarded
as one of the most powerful
and influential [foreign spoken]
accounts for a substantial portion
of the Persian incunables
all together 12 items
as do similar works by other less
prominent [foreign name] scholars.
By far, the most often printed
works is Tufan al-bokar,
a contemporary work about
early [foreign name] history
and the martyrdom of [inaudible].
Compiled by Mirza [foreign] we
know today some 13 additions
of his work were printed
from moveable type in
a period of 17 years.
Beginning with the addition
of 1851 this work also contained
a standard set of illustrations.
Now if we aim to evaluate
these findings in the light
of Eisenstein's model of print
induced modernity we find
that the only item truly
introducing new knowledge
to Iran was the [foreign
name], teaching the practice
of small pox vaccination other
than that the art of printing
from moveable type in the Qajar
period was consciously employed
for purposes of political
and/or religious propaganda thus
solidifying and elaborating the
position of the Sheik of Omar
in particularly that of the
16 century prominent authority
of [foreign name].
Following folklorist [foreign name]
in defining three main orientations
of the keyword tradition that is,
tradition as a communicative
transaction,
tradition as a temporal
ideology and tradition
as communal property we appear to be
perfectly well-entitled to conclude
that rather than acting as
an agent of change printing
from moveable type in Iran
acted as an agent of tradition
in particular a traditional
interpretation of religious,
moral and ethical values
as presented
by commonly accepted historical
authorities of 12 Shia Islam.
Of course we should not forget
that the printing presses
in Iran were run by
specific individuals
that in turn enjoyed
sponsorship from high officials.
Since printing from moveable
type involved costly equipment,
private printing establishments
did not exist.
The most productive printing
press, the one in Tehran was run
by Mirza [foreign name] and
his successors and owned
by the influential court official
Manuchehr-Khan Gorji known
as "Mo tamed al doule" a Georgian
unic of great political talent.
Referring to his honorific title "Mo
tamed al doule" the books produced
in his printing establishment
are [foreign name] the so-called
Mohammad Imprints.
The establishment he sponsored was
operated for almost four decades
and produced more than 40 items.
That is roughly two-thirds of the
total output of the Iran incunables.
As Manuchehr-Khan Gorji was one
of the most powerful persons
of his day, his efforts of
sustaining [foreign name] religious
and ethics by way of printing
were certainly coordinated
with both political and
religious authority.
Meanwhile and this brings
me to my second point
in evaluating the historical
survey printing
from moveable type was only a minor
phenomenon during the early phase
of printing in Iran.
Much more important in terms of
numbers was lithographic printing.
While Mirza [foreign name] had
brought his first lithographic
printing press to Iran from
St. Petersburg as early
as 1824 the first published item
we know about is the 1833 Qur'an.
Lithography was then
practiced parallel to printing
from moveable type until 1858
and it was is the sole existing
printing technique until 1874.
Even after the reintroduction and
successful permanent establishment
of printing from moveable type
lithography remained predominant
for quite some time.
For instance the incomplete
yet proportionally
representative holdings
of the Tehran National Library in
1999 comprised four works printed
from moveable types for the first
two decades until 1893 that is
after the reintroduction
of typography in Iran,
16 items in the period
between 1893 and 1903
and 56 typographic items by 1912.
As printing from moveable type
gradually increased lithography
steadily decreased until the last
lithographic workshops finally shut
down during the 1950s.
Now aiming to access the range and
content of lithographic production
in Iran we encountered severe
problems and here I have a section
in my talk which is more
or less directly addressed
to what I might call
the hardcore librarians,
so some essential information
that you might want to know.
Well we all know that first
and foremost the bibliographical
assessment of print production
in Qajar Iran is totally inadequate.
Traditional sources of
information such as [foreign names]
that is the Catalog of
Persian printed books
or [foreign name] a Guide to
[foreign name] Compilations,
these books rely heavily on the
limited information supplied
by the respective author's friends
and colleagues often relating
to the holdings of their
personal libraries.
A comprehensive catalog
of Persian books printed
in the Qajar period does not exist
and to tell the truth will not
be possible before the holdings
of major libraries in Iran would
have been cataloged in detail.
Already back in 1975 Russian
bibliographer Olympia [foreign name]
had been the first to publish a
catalog of Persian lithograph books
in the Library of the
Leningrad Branch
of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
This was followed by detailed
histories of lithographic printing
in Iran in 1979 and India
in 2001 and again catalogs
of the respective holdings in the
Leningrad [inaudible] University
and the Russian National Library.
Meanwhile both in Iran and in
the West bibliographers continue
to focus on the assessment
of manuscript collections.
The extent to which this preference
is motivated by certain disdain
of early printed books and
the perceived minor attitude
against the uniqueness of
manuscripts remains to be explored.
In particular, the
bibliographical assessment
of lithograph books might
have suffered from the fact
that they were regarded as a kind
of chimera, neither fish nor fowl.
At best Persian lithograph
books were cataloged together
with other Persian books regardless
of the date of publication
or the technique of printing.
At any rate there is so far not
a single catalog specializing
in Persian lithograph
books in a Western library.
In Iran, and this is
the list I just wanted
to show you for your own profit.
In Iran, the growing awareness while
the particular historical importance
of lithograph books resulted in the
compilation of the first catalog
in 1992 which is the Catalog of
Lithograph Books in the Institute
of Cultural Documents of
the Islamic revolution.
Since then the Iranian
bibliographers have published almost
20 catalogs of lithographed
or otherwise old printed books
in public and private libraries
in Iran and the holdings
of several large libraries
are currently being cataloged.
In addition to two general surveys
of the history of printing in Iran
by [foreign name] and [foreign
name] both published in 1999
and the Persian translation
of [foreign name] original Russian
publication about the history
of lithography in Iran
in 2011, sorry,
2009 two Iranian publications
explore the history of printing
in the provincial cities of [foreign
name] both published in 2011.
Moreover the field really prides
itself of the first bibliography
of related studies compiled
by [foreign names] 2011
and a listing a total of 676 items.
Special mention must here also be
made of the bibliographical efforts
of Pakistani scholar [foreign
name] who published a catalog
of lithographed and
otherwise rare Persian books
in the [foreign name]
Library in Islamabad 1986
and recently a fourth
volume bibliography
of Persian books printed in the
Indian sub-continent between 1871
and 2007 that's published in 2012.
A recent and very important
initiative in the field
of assessing Persian lithograph
books is the Iranian website Bayaz
run by Majid Gholami Jalise.
Since its installment in 2006 the
initiative has so far resulted
in the photographic
documentation and cataloging of more
than 30 thousands lithograph
items preserved
in various Iranian libraries.
The website is continually
updated with hundreds
of new items every month and is
eventually expected to result
in publication of what Jalise
modestly calls a comprehensive hand
list of Persian lithograph books.
While these existing publications
and ventures are important
cornerstones
for future adequate assessment
of Persian lithograph books
the active corporation western
librarians and bibliographers
is essential
to the project's ultimate success.
In Iran books were read and
used often to the extent
of literally falling apart and
consequently being discarded.
In this way many early Persian
books are only preserved
in Western libraries
such as to name only
to four most important ones very
large collections in the library
of the St. Petersburg Branch
of the [inaudible] Institute
of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
the British Library in London,
the Library of Paris
Institute [foreign names]
and [foreign names] in Berlin.
As far as the relative value
of lithograph books is concerned I
have repeatedly voiced my conviction
that Persian lithograph
books must be treated
with the same respect
and care as manuscripts.
Due to the fragile
nature of the stones used
for printing during the early period
every lithograph Persian book is
potentially unique.
Moreover, although these books
were produced in hundreds of copies
in the middle of the 19th century
today many items might only be
preserved in a fragmentary state
as yet unknown private library
and even the most frequently
preserved items such as editions
of [foreign name] exist in no more
than a dozen publically
available copies scattered
in libraries around the world.
What exactly are the implications
of treating Persian lithograph books
with the same care as manuscripts?
First and foremost Persian
lithograph books need
to be perceived as a disdained
category of printed items resulting
in them being stacked and cataloged
separately from other printed items
and I'm very happy to note
that this is happening
at the Library of Congress
right now.
In the past decade most of the
large libraries in Iran have begun
to put this agenda into practice.
Second, the bibliographical
data supplied
for these books must
be much more detailed.
At present, even many of the
recent catalogs compiled in Iran
where supposedly this could
easily be done supply little more
information than say the name of
the author, the title of the book
and the place and date
of publication.
If we were to catalog Persian
lithograph book in view
of an adequate assessment that
will enable future scholars
to reconstruct the history
of printing in Iranian
in detail the data
sheets need to take
into account many more
details than previously.
I apologize.
This is very small, the
writing you can barely read
but here remain assured you
have the PowerPoint here
so you can make use of that.
This is a data sheet compiled
by Iranian bibliographer Mas Udi
and similar data sheets have
been prepared more recently
by Iranian scholars [foreign names].
In pointing out or mentioning only
some of them the most important data
from this data sheet we find for
instance slots to mention the names
of the printer or printing
establishment, the book's sponsor
or editor which is very
important for lithograph books,
the calligrapher and of course
if the book is illustrated the
names of the artists involved.
Codicological information on the
script and it's layout, on the paper
and its quality including
watermarks and seals and of course
on the binding would equally
underline the unique character
of each and every Persian
lithograph book.
As the presently available catalogs
of the major libraries in Iran
or outside of Iran rarely contain
this detailed information the
validity of a general assessment
of Persian lithograph books
in the early phases of printing
in Iran that is, the period 1833
to 1874 is bound to be limited.
Instead I would here
like to highlight contemporary
native assessment that is,
unique catalog of books available
in the 19th century Iran.
This catalog who's relevance for
the study of popular literature
in Qajar Iran I have
discussed elsewhere is appended
to the 1865 addition of a book
called the [foreign name] a
collection of writings by a
minor author of the period.
The book's publisher a certain
[foreign name] is also unknown
but following a lament on the
rudimentary character of knowledge
about printed books in Iran.
The editor [foreign name] presents
what you see here a three page
catalog of books available
in Iran in 1865
and this is really
quite a unique document.
Incomplete as the catalog may be
it is revealing as for to nature
and scope of Persian
books some 50 years
after the introduction
of printing to Iran.
Not being able to go into much
detail here let me just mention
that the catalog is heavily
dominated by the traditional fields
of the Islamic sciences such as
law, [foreign word] theology,
[foreign word] most of which
you see here on the right side.
[Foreign Language Spoken]
categories of more secular nature
such as history or language
or sciences such as medicine
and pharmacy are listed but
even these are dominated
by traditional items such
as in the field of history,
[foreign name] 15th century [foreign
name] "The Garden of Purity"
or 16th century [foreign words],
"The Friend of Biographies."
While a special section
of the catalog is devoted
to the traditional feel of
the interpretation of dreams,
most of the manuals
of instruction printed
at the Dar al-fonun some 20 years
before the catalog's compilation are
not even listed which probably means
that these books were
not available anymore.
The few nontraditional items one is
able to identify related to history
such as the Persian
translation of Voltaire's history
of Peter the Great, not exactly
a modern book or to medicine
such as the book [foreign name]
also known as [foreign name].
The first modern manual detailing
the physical characteristics
of the human body ailments and
the medical properties of plants
that had been compiled at the order
of the Qajar monarch [foreign name]
and I understand that this
book is in the exhibition.
In general, [foreign name] catalog
documents that at the beginning
of the second half of the 19th
century it was still a long way
to go until the art of printing
would result in the introduction
and dissemination of
modern knowledge in Iran.
Now to come to my third and final
point and here I'm referring
to [foreign name] many uses
and plural appropriations
of printing let me draw your
attention to the fact that printing
in Qajar Iran resulted in more
than the printing of
books and newspapers.
It is here that our present
knowledge is even more limited
than in any of the
previously mentioned areas
since physical evidence of the
single leaf prints produced
in the Qajar period
is extremely rare.
We may presume that these single
leafs included announcements
of all kinds of personal
and public matters
but since these prints
constituted items
of an everyday character they
have as a rule not been collected
and are rarely preserved.
Charms and talismans appear to
have been particularly popular.
Some of them such as
this one dominated
by writing often including
verses from the Qur'an.
The only image you have here
is on top where you see Ali,
the person venerated
particularly by Shi'a Islam
where there are two
sons Hassan and Hussein.
Again, the same character Ali
centrally placed in the middle
and this is a charm playing
on a famous Haddis that is,
a saying of the Prophet Muhammad
actually addressing Ali's competence
where he says, [foreign language]
very, very famous well more
or less expressing Ali's competence
as a gateway to knowledge.
This is just another charm
including magic squares
or another one again including
Ali and his famous sword,
and again Ali this time
in the form as a lion,
an animal that is often
representing Ali.
Other ephemeral lithographed items
from the Qajar period includes
single leaf imprints of scenes
from the Battle of Karbala which
were probably distributed as places
of worship or a highly fascinated
item that I just found recently,
a decorative piece playing
on the Koranic verse
[foreign language] executed
in a very particular calligraphic
style in Persian known as golzar
in which the letters are
filled with tiny images.
Also extremely rare
but fascinatingly beautiful a
composition featuring [foreign name]
beloved lady seated on what
is known as a composite camel,
a camel made out of various
animals and human characters.
Particularly fascinating items
include a genealogy of the Imams
of the 12 Shi'a up to the [foreign
name] as descending in a direct line
from Adam that was
printed both separately
and as an appendix to
the Qur'an in 1893.
Now this alone would take me two
hours at least to go into detail
but you might be able to
identify up in the middle band
on the upper left corner you have
the name Adam right on far left
and down in the middle band
on the lower right corner you
have the word [foreign word]
and this is really a direct
genealogy linking this artisan
on to Adam so no break, no
intermittent characters simply,
well every single character
is named.
And of course we have the recently
discovered scroll visualizing the
Shia pilgrimage to Mecca and the
pilgrim's return to Iran by way
of places of Shia worship in Iraq
and Iran that I had the privilege
to talk about at the
Library of Congress last year
and this journey finally ends and
culminates in visit of the Sanctuary
of the [foreign name]
Imam Reza Ashad.
The traditional items of this
particular item are striking.
On the one hand it is preceded
by historical documents
such as the manuscript scroll
acquired by German explorer
in the service of the
Danish king [foreign name]
and this scroll was acquired at
the sanctuary of the [foreign name]
in 1765 so this is a
mid-18th century item
and all the other lithograph
scroll is succeeded by items
such as this one a late Qajar
period heart certificate
with a specific Shia the dimension
or even more mid-20th century items
such as the colorful posters that
were offered to pilgrims for sale
as personal mementoes or
tokens of their physical
as well as spiritual journey.
Now to come to my conclusion,
I would like to sum
up my main argument by adding
just a few general considerations.
Eisenstein and her
partisans are certainly right
in that the invention
of the printing press
was a major achievement
that eventually served
the advancement
of knowledge and thus change.
In other words, in order to
do justice to the introduction
of printing to Iran we
need to consider, no sorry.
The printing press did not
have an agency of its own
since it had to be put to use.
In other words in order to do
justice to the introduction
of printing to Iran we need
to consider sponsors as well
as potential audiences in Qajar
Iran both of whom were different
from early modern Europe.
In Iran modern ways of printing
have been known at least
since [foreign name] had
witnessed the Iranians
in [foreign name] printing
their books from moveable type.
But that was offered to Shah Abbas
for printing Persian
text was never used.
Iran needed the reformist
characters of the Qajar period
such as Mirza Abbas and Amir
Kadir for the printing press
to make a lasting appearance
and even then the introduction
of printing itself did
not induce modernity.
Reformers made use of the technical
progress to further their own ends.
Whether the printing press
served as an agent of change
or anything else depended
on the local patterns
of intellectual production and
authority as well as on the social,
cultural and political
circumstances of the day.
And yet again Eisenstein's
emphasis on change and my focus
on tradition are probably just
two sides of the same coin
that are neither necessarily
antithetic nor mutually exclusive.
The present Islamic Republic of
Iran offers a multitude of examples
for the fact that modern means
of communication can be put
to the service of tradition.
In particular, religious
tradition of 12 Shi'a Islam.
For instance at the recent
International Book Fair
in Tehran dozens of popular books
on the interpretation
dreams were offered,
typically a very, very
traditional topic.
These books were offered side
by side where the sources
of tradition [foreign name]
knowledge some of them
on modern media communications such
as CD ROM or even as databases.
In modern Iran political guidance
determines many of the ways
in which change and
tradition are negotiated.
While modern technological means
of communication are highly valued
their use is particularly favored
within the framework of tradition
as defined by political guidelines.
Moreover, and this is
probably a true reason,
we need to remind ourselves
that change does not necessarily
imply improvement nor are the
effects of change immediately
visible.
In the long run it does not
seem farfetched to suggest
that the introduction of printing to
Iran in the Qajar period contributed
to the developments that eventually
be culminated in the [inaudible]
of tradition in the
Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Thank you [applause]
>> Thank you very much
for attending the lecture.
I also wanted to take a second
and say if it wasn't the help
of Dr. Marzolph with the exhibition
a lot of the lithographic pieces
that are in there I had
to personally consult him
for his expertise and
it's noteworthy to say
that without his help I would
not have had the full range
of information that has
gone into the exhibit.
So please ask a few questions.
I will take about three since
we're running out of time.
Go ahead. All right you start first.
[ Inaudible Participant Question ]
Well, I think I mentioned a number
of social, cultural reasons.
The reasons begin with
the availability
of the technical equipment you need
for printing from moveable type
and the essential point is
that you need the instruments,
the technical equipment, the molds
for preparing new characters
all the time
because the characters wear out.
It might have been that the
technical knowledge wasn't available
to that point.
If it was available it
was still very expensive
to run a printing press
from moveable type
but this is only one of the reasons.
Other reasons are that books
printed from moveable type
in the early period were let's say,
let's put it very simple
were regarded as ugly.
You had, I mean if you look at some
of the books the characters
are not even joined properly
like they would have to
be in Arabic writing,
so the technological knowledge to
produce typographic books in a shape
that was appealing to the
audience was simply not there.
That's the second reason.
The third reason and of course
goes in favor of lithography
because lithography essentially
continues manuscript production.
If you want to produce a
lithograph book you write a page
like previously you would
write a page for a manuscript.
The result would look exactly
like the previous manuscripts
and we have very many examples
for early printed lithograph books
that were then even adorned to
emulate manuscript production
like people would add
borders and color
or they would sprinkle
the pages with gold just
to make it appear as manuscript.
That's another reason and we should
not forget the writer's guilds,
the calligraphers' guilds
who faced the danger
of running out of business.
If printing from moveable type
takes over hundreds if not thousands
of people living from the trade
of writing books would have gone
out of business so there was strong
opposition to that from that point
and that all adds up to a
bundle of arguments why printing
from moveable type in the early
period was not successful.
[ Inaudible Student Question ]
>> Well we know when [foreign name]
as I usually say invented printing
which he did not but he
invented the molding of letters
that could be used for printing
from moveable type when he did
that Latin writing in manuscripts
was using separate letters.
It was not like handwriting
like joined letters together
as we might see in
modern handwriting
but it was simple separate letters
and what he did was essentially was
to copy these letters and
turn them into moveable type.
The same thing could
not be done for Arabic
or that matter Persian writing
because you need a number
of different shapes.
You need to deposit them
very carefully so as
to join the letters together so
it is a fairly complicated process
and it seems that in the
early period of introduction
of printing people we are not
able to do that in a proper way.
Go ahead.
[ Inaudible Student Question ]
Well this is an important
argument that you're mentioning.
I should probably start by saying
that I don't think neither my title
nor my paper is very provocative.
I'm being mild on Eisenstein
because I think that for the region
of the world she covered she's
probably perfectly right.
If there's anything to
criticize it's probably points
of the reception of
Eisenstein by later scholars
and I think the discussion here
moves on two different levels.
The question might be
whether while the introduction
of printing induced change and
then modernity or whether the air
for modernity was not there
and printing just came
at the right time.
If we look at the second
way we can say
that for Iran this argument
would perfectly work.
I mentioned at the very end of
my talk the introduction of print
to Iran in the [foreign
name] period.
Shah Abbas was perfectly aware of
the Armenians printing their books
and if rumors are right then he
was even offered by the Armenians
that they could print
Persian books for him.
He did not.
He simply did not respond
to that offer
so it needed a different
intellectual, cultural,
societal development for printing
to be accepted in Iran and I guess
in medieval Europe with Guttenbeck
in the 15th century developments,
intellectual developments above
all the atmosphere was right
to respond to that new invention.
The point you're making
about a larger culture's
fear, is of course very right.
In Europe everybody printed
in Latin characters though
in different writings,
well in different languages
but they could use
the same technique.
They could use essentially
the same equipment
in the Middle East I would say it's
probably not exactly that separate
from each other as one might think
because lithographic printing
was known in the Arab world
and the Persian world
at the same time, well,
more or less in the 19th century.
In the Arab world it was
not developed very much,
again for a number of specific
reasons, reasons specific
for Arab culture but for
instance, I mean if we look
at the successful introduction
of printing from moveable type
to Iran there is a strong
link to Turkey again
because this travelogue [foreign
name] travelogue was first printed
in Istanbul which means with Turkey,
Turkish know-how, Turkish equipment,
even Turkish fonts for printing
so there are a number of overlaps
and in Iran I think the region
where there is the most overlap
when even books printed
for the Ottoman market
and then the Farsi language Persian
market is the region of Azerbaijan,
[inaudible] and it is no coincidence
that printing was first introduced
to Tsarist where they had
audiences in both languages
and books even being printed
for the Ottoman market.
I guess these are points that
need to be explored in more detail
and we don't know much
about that yet.
We don't know what we can surmise
that even some of the people acted
in printing books in
Iran had links to Turkey.
My favorite artists of the period
[foreign name] I mean he came
from Azerbaijan.
He came from a Turkish
language region
and he most probably also
illustrated books in Turkish
and then you're of course right.
There's a big connection
to the South continent,
the printing of Persian books in
India and not only the printing
of books but also say
the initial spark
for having the idea to print books.
I mean where was [inaudible]
first printed?
It was not printed in Iran.
It was printed in India and
from there on people got to idea
that it might be a
useful idea to print books
and distribute them
in larger numbers.
So thank you for this intervention.
>> Thank you.
We don't have more time.
Thanks everyone for coming again.
And again we've had the wonderful
professor come such a far distance.
We're really glad that
he took the time
and you stayed here
for the entire program.
>> Thank you.
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.