science

Ibrahim Muteferrika

Ibrahim Muteferrika is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ibrahim Muteferrika rather than just read about it. In short: Ibrahim Muteferrika (Turkish: İbrahim Müteferrika; 1674–1745 CE) was a Hungarian-born Ottoman diplomat, publisher, economist, historian, Islamic theologian, sociologist, and the first Muslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type. Early life Ibrahim Muteferrika was born in Kolozsvár (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania).

Key takeaways

Ibrahim Muteferrika belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reproduce the core statement of Ibrahim Muteferrika from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ibrahim Muteferrika (Turkish: İbrahim Müteferrika; 1674–1745 CE) was a Hungarian-born Ottoman diplomat, publisher, economist, historian, Islamic theologian, sociologist, and the first Muslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type.

Early life Ibrahim Muteferrika was born in Kolozsvár (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania). He was an ethnic Hungarian Unitarian who converted to Islam, but his original Hungarian name is unknown.

Diplomatic service At a young age, Ibrahim Muteferrika entered the Ottoman diplomatic services. He took an active part in the negotiations with Austria and Russia. Ibrahim Muteferrika was an active figure in promoting the Ottoman-French alliance (1737–1739) against Austria and Russia. Ibrahim Muteferrika was also acclaimed for his role in the Ottoman-Swedish action against Russia. During his services as a diplomat, he is known to have befriended many influential personalities including Osman Aga of Temesvar, a fellow diplomat of Transylvanian origins and former prisoner-of-war imprisoned in Austria. It was during his years as a diplomat that he took a keen interest in collecting books that helped him understand the ongoing Renaissance, the emergence of Protestant movements in Europe, and the rise of powerful colonial empires in Europe.

Printing press

The printing press had already been known in the Ottoman Empire since 1493 or 1504 in Hebrew characters. Other communities operated presses. The first Ottoman press using movable Arabic type was operated in 1706–1711 in Aleppo by Christians. Kenyan academic Calestous Juma argues that printing was delayed in the Islamic world due to the greater emphasis on oral transmission in Islamic tradition compared to Christianity and Judaism, as well as the cultural significance of religious books and calligraphy manuscripts; scribes especially exerted a strong resistance. Muteferrika's volumes, printed in Istanbul and using custom-made fonts, are occasionally referred to as "Turkish incunabula". Muteferrika, whose last name derived from his employment as a müteferrika, or head of the household, under Sultan Ahmed III and during the Tulip Era, was also a geographer, astronomer, and philosopher. Following a 1726 report on the efficiency of the new system, which he drafted and presented simultaneously to Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha, the Grand Mufti, and the clergy, and a later request submitted to Sultan Ahmed III, he received permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some Islamic calligraphers and religious leaders). Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729, and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes (each having between 500 and 1,000 copies). The first book ever published by Muteferrika is "Vankulu Lügati", a 2-volume Arabic-Turkish dictionary. Printing religious books was prohibited until 1803. Among the works published by Müteferrika were historical and generically scientific works, as well as Katip Çelebi's world atlas Cihannüma (loosely translated as The Mirror of the World or the World Seer). In a digression that he added to his printing, Müteferrika discussed the heliocentrism of astronomy in detail, with references to relatively up-to-date scientific arguments for and against it. In that regard, he is considered one of the first people to properly introduce heliocentrism to Ottoman readers. After 1742, however, Ibrahim Muteferrika's printing activities were discontinued and an attempt by the British diplomat James Mario Matra, motivated by the exorbitant prices for manuscript books, to re-establish a press in Istanbul was aborted in 1779. In his account, Matra refers to the strong opposition of the scribes that Müteferrika's enterprise had faced:

A Press had been set up here about sixty years ago in the turbulent reign of Ahmed III but those who maintained themselves by copying of Books, apprehending with reason that their trade would be totally ruined, were so loud in their clamours as to alarm the Seraglio, and as they were supported by a seditious Corps of Janissary, the Sultan apprehending what really did after happen, that as he mounted the throne by one insurrection, he might be tumbled from it by another, gave way to their complaints, and suppressed the Press, before anything better than the Quran, Sunnah, and some trifling books of Mathematics had been struck off.

Legacy A statue of Muteferrika can be found in the Sahaflar Çarşısı adjacent to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

Books published There were 17 titles published by Muteferrika at his press during his lifetime:

Kitab-ı Lügat-ı Vankulu (Sihah El-Cevheri), 2 volumes, 1729 Tuhfet-ül Kibar fi Esfar el-Bihar, 1729 Tarih-i Seyyah, 1729 Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi, 1730 Tarih-i Timur Gürgan, 1730 Tarih-I Mısr-i Kadim ve Mısr-i Cedid, 1730 Gülşen-i Hülefa, 1730 Grammaire Turque, 1730 Usul el-Hikem fi Nizam el-Ümem, 1732 Fiyuzat-ı Mıknatısiye, 1732 Cihan-nüma, 1732 Takvim el-Tevarih, 1733 Kitab-ı Tarih-i Naima, 2 volumes, 1734 Tarih-i Raşid, 3 volumes, 1735 Tarih-i Çelebizade, 1741 Ahval-i Gazavat der Diyar-ı Bosna, 1741 Kitab-ı Lisan el-Acem el Müsemma bi-Ferheng-i Şuuri, 2 volumes, 1742 (Most of the copies of the book Tarih-i Çelebizade have been bound into the third and last volume of Tarih-i Raşid and sold together with it and thus have erroneously led several sources to believe a total of 16 items have been published.)

Own works Risâle Islâmiyye (available in manuscript form) (published by [Esed Cosan] in 1993)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ibrahim Muteferrika

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ibrahim Muteferrika claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ibrahim Muteferrika before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ibrahim Muteferrika ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ibrahim Muteferrika

In research: Ibrahim Muteferrika appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ibrahim Muteferrika in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ibrahim Muteferrika is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1674 births, 1745 deaths, 18th-century Hungarian historians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ibrahim Muteferrika outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ibrahim Muteferrika in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ibrahim Muteferrika means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Ibrahim Muteferrika in simple terms?

Why does Ibrahim Muteferrika matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ibrahim Muteferrika?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ibrahim Muteferrika.