The first thirty years of Arabic printing in Egypt, 1238-1267 (1822-1851): a bibliographical study with a checklist by title of Arabic printed works

Abstract

The study of the cultural history of Egypt during the first half of the nineteenth century has, up to now, been hampered by a lack of a complete list of publications printed in Arabic-character. . The most complete bibliography for the period covering Mu~ammad CAli's reign (1805-1848) lists some 304 publications. The aim of this thesis is· to produce as complete a list of works printed in the first three decades of indigenous Arabic printing in Egypt (1822-1851), as is possible, in the hope that it will serve as the basis for a definitive catalogue of Arabic-character printed works for the period. To this end 570 separate works/editions have been established and annotated with reference to the sources in which they are cited.

The thesis is divided into three parts, the first offering a brief account of printing and publishing activities of the period under study, while the second part consists of the bibliography of the 570 works which are known to have appeared in this period. The third part of the thesis contains various tables of statistical information showing the general trends in publication by various criteria, laid out according to language (Arabic, Turkish or Persian), subject matter (philosophy, religion, social sciences, language, pure and applied sciences, literature, or history/geography), and the nature of the work (contemporary writing, translation or classical). Information as to the editions, contents of the works, volumes/parts, pages, price, print-runs distributed) are (including given in copies printed and copies sold and/or as complete a form as possible.