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A: Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, B: Iran, Tehran

The First Book is Printed in Persia (Iran)

1817

In 1233/1817 a collection of fatwas relating to the Russo-Persian war was published in Persia by means of printing from movable type.  This was the first book printed in Persia (Iran).

Marzolph, "TULLIP: A Projected Thesaurus Universalis Libri Lithographici Illustrati Persorum," Sadgrove (ed) History of Printing and Publishing in the Languages and Countries of the Middle East (2005) 27.

In September 2020 the Encyclopedia Iranica article on ČĀP (printing) stated this regarding the introduction of printing to Persia:

"Introduction of modern typography
(čāp-e sorbī “printing with lead”). According to one report, a printing press was brought to Būšehr in 1198/1784 (Maḥbūbī, p. 211), but E. G. Browne could find no evidence to support it (p. 7). The Notice sur Khaudjah Hafiz al Chyrazy by
A. F. J. Herbin, which according to Zenker (I, p. 68) appeared in Shiraz in 1220-21/1806, was in reality printed in Paris. On the other hand, John Malcolm wrote in 1231/1815 that “the art of printing is unknown in Persia” (p. 582), and Browne believed that the first printing press with movable type in Iran was the one established at Tabrīz in about 1232/1816-17, under the patronage of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā (Browne, p. 7); the printer was Mīrzā Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn b. Malek-Moḥammad Tabrīzī. At about the same time Mīrzā ʿAbd-al-Wahhāb Moʿtamed-al-Dawla spon­sored a second press, in Tehran.

"There is some disagreement about the earliest Persian work printed at Tabrīz. According to one report, in 1233/1817-18 Jehādīya (Fighters against the infidels) by Mīrzā ʿĪsā Farāhānī Qāʾemmaqām was printed by Moḥammad-ʿAlī b. Ḥājj Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Āštīānī at Tabrīz; it was reprinted the next year by Zayn-al­-ʿĀbedīn (Tarbīat, apud Maḥbūbī, p. 212). According to H. Schindler, however, the first book printed at Tabrīz in 1233/1817 was Fatḥ-nāma (Book of conquest) by Mīrzā ʿĪsā’s son Mīrzā Abu’l-Qāsem Farāhānī, about a battle fought between Persians and Russians in 1227/1812 (Taqīzāda apud Maḥbūbī, I, pp. 211-12; Afšār, 1345, p. 28). A book on vaccination against smallpox (Resāla-ye ābelakūbī, Treatise on vaccina­tion) by the British physician Charles Cormick was also probably published in that year (Ṭabāṭabāʾī et al., p. 209)."




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