The History of Typography in the Arabic Script

Typography in the Arabic Script

The Abjad writing system, more commonly referred to as the Arabic script, has been adapted for use in numerous languages beyond Arabic itself. Among the most prominent are Persian, Urdu, and Ottoman Turkish, alongside several regional languages such as Kurdish, Shahmukhi Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Hindko, and Balochi. Over time, developments in Arabic printing practices played a foundational role in shaping the typographic and stylistic conventions of these languages.

The history of typography in the Arabic Script began with the development of Arabic typography in the late 15th century. Primarily, the motivation for developing type for languages written in non-Latin scripts was to aid Christian Missionaries from Europe.

The Arabic alphabet with romanised names appeared in Bernhard von Breydenbach’s Peregrinatio in 1486, and by the early 1500s, Gregorio de Gregori printed the first Arabic text using movable type in Italy. 

In 1529, Geoffroy Tory featured an Arabic alphabet in Champfleury, and the first printed Quran appeared in Venice in the 1530s. 

Robert Granjon, working in Rome from 1578, created refined Arabic typefaces used in works like Kitab al-bustan and Arabic Gospels for the Medici Oriental Press, which demonstrated that Arabic books could be beautifully printed, despite being commercially unviable. 

Later, Franciscus Raphelengius in Leiden developed an Arabic font based on Granjon’s, which, though inferior, shaped Arabic typography in northern Europe for over 300 years.

In 1608, Peter Kirsten designed a calligraphic Arabic typeface and introduced Arabic printing to Sweden under royal patronage. In 1613, an elegant Arabic font appeared in Doctrina Christiana, commissioned by François Savary de Brèves and printed in Rome using models acquired during his time in the Ottoman Empire. 

Like Arabic, religious texts dominated early printing efforts in Persian, including the short-lived 1629 Carmelite press in the Safavid Empire. In 1639, Persian translations of Latin texts were printed in Leiden, though Persian printing wouldn't flourish until a century later. 

In 1720, Sultan Ahmed III’s court supported the founding of the first Ottoman Turkish press in Constantinople by Ibrahim Muteferrika, which published its first book in 1728. 

Finally, the 1733 Al-Shuwayr Printing Press in Lebanon, supported by Jesuits, became a foundational site for indigenous Arab typography. 

In 1743, Mukhtasar-e-Asool-e-Masihi (A Summary of the Rules of Christianity) became the first book to be printed in Urdu. However, it did not use Urdu letters and was printed using the Arabic alphabet. Urdu has more letters than Arabic, which were differentiated using dots to mark diacritics not present in Arabic. 

It was followed by other missionary publications such as Suleman ki Taleem ki Kitaab (The Book of the Teachings of Solomon) in 1744, and the Holy Bible between 1749 to 1756. In 1756, Daud ke Geet (The Hymns of David) and Grammativa Hindustani were also published in Urdu. 

Although these early Urdu texts were printed in Europe, a major milestone occurred in the same year with the inauguration of Fort William College in Kolkata, which housed the world's first Urdu printing press. Later, in 1784, the Kolkata Current became the first publication to feature a newspaper column in Persian.

Lithography was invented in 1796 by Alois Senefelder in Munich, and a year later, Napoleon established Egypt’s first printing press, Imprimerie Nationale du Caire, to disseminate his decrees. However, in 1800, anti-colonial resistance in Cairo destroyed the press. Around the same time, the Stanhope Press reached Qajar Iran, marking a turning point in Persian printing. In 1810, the first Persian newspaper began circulation in Kolkata. 

By 1817, Mirza Zain, under the patronage of Crown Prince Abbas Mirza, established a press in Tabriz, leading to the 1818 publication of Fatehnama, an account of the Russo-Persian wars. It is believed to be one of the earliest books in Persian, with copies possibly printed in British India. In 1819, Iran's second press was founded in Tehran by Mirza Saleh, who had received training at the British and Foreign Bible Society’s press.

Muhammad Ali, the New ruler of Egypt, renamed the Napoleon Press to  Matba‘at Bulaq (Bulaq Press) and moved it to the Bulaq district of Cairo. It became the first Muslim printing press in the Arab world.

The Bulaq Press played a pioneering role in publishing both traditional Islamic texts and modern scientific works translated from European languages. The first presses were overseen by Syrian typographer Nikula al-Masabiki, who also designed the initial Arabic typefaces. By 1828, the press began printing Arabic periodicals. Over time, Masabiki’s original typefaces were replaced by locally produced ones modelled after those from the Ottoman Imperial Press. 

In 1829, the first Urdu translation of the Quran appeared in print.

In 1835, Bulaq Press published Alf Layla wa Layla (A Thousand and One Nights), marking the publication of its first folklore collection. 

In 1838, Reverend Eli Smith created 1,500 Arabic letter moulds in Leipzig for a typeface, American Letters, based on the Constantinople scripts. 

By 1866, Urdu newspapers like Jam-e-Jahannama and the Aligarh University Gazette began circulation. 

In 1870, Hadiqat al-Akhbar, the first official Arabic newspaper, was published in Beirut in both Arabic and French by the Syrian Press.

Over 10,000 Arabic publications came out of Egypt between 1822 and 1900, the majority of which were typeset. Arabic, written in Naskh, was relatively easier to adapt to type. In 1899, the first Arabic typewriter was also created by Selim Shibli Haddad. In the Persianate world, due to the complexity of typesetting the Nastaliq script, lithography quickly gained popularity in Qajar Iran and beyond.

Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, several Urdu periodicals were published in Nastaliq, with the majority produced through typesetting rather than lithographic printing. Although lithography was in use, there was a noticeable leaning toward favouring typeset production over lithographic methods.

In the 1920s, a Nastaliq Urdu typeface with over 1,200 characters was developed in Hyderabad, Deccan, and was later reduced to 600, but it did not gain widespread use. 

The next major milestone came in 1924, with the printing of the first typeset Quran in Cairo.

Finally, with the invention of the Urdu typewriter, just after the birth of Pakistan in 1947, the era of developments in analogue typesetting in the Arabic Script came to an end.

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References:

A History of Arab Graphic Design

Urdu Type ki Kahani

The Transfer of Typographic Printing Technology to Iran in the Early Qajar Period (1782-1861). Akbar Khoshzad and Gholam Hussein Moghaddam Heidari. Translated by Esmail Yazdanpou.