Description

8°. 104 pp, 47 pp., 67 pp., modern calf binding with a flap and embossed purple decoration, modern marbled endpapers, old taxation stamp on the first page (first pages stained, mostly water stained in margins, the second part with water staining in the inner margin, water staining on the last pages touching the text, old annotations in blue pencil on the first page and annotations in blue ink and pencil in margins of the text, old title on the edge, 20th century reparations with Japanese paper to the inner side of the last two pages and to the upper part of the last page with a loss of paper in the upper part, tiny worm holes and tiny tears in the margins.

 
 
This is the first printed edition of the collection of diwans by an Ottoman poet Mustafa Sami, printed in Bulaq, by the first Muslim press in Egypt.  

Mustafa Sami (?-1734) was an Ottoman author in poem, famous in his time for his diwans and ghasals. Born in Istanbul, Sami was employed as a higher governmental official and accountant. He allegedly wrote a part of his work in a mental institution.  

This is the first printed publication of Mustafa Sami’s diwans, gathered from 33 different manuscripts from various Middle-Eastern institutions, and printed in the first Muslim press in Egypt, in Bulaq.

Bulaq Press

The Bulaq or Al-Amiriya Press (Amiri Press, Amiria Press), the first Muslim official and governmental printing press established in Egypt, was founded in 1820 by the viceroy of Egypt Muhammad Ali (1769-1849), and is still active today. 

Already in 1815, the first delegation was sent from Cairo to Milan to learn the printing techniques. After the construction of the press was finished in the autumn of 1820, it took another two years to transport the machines and school the employees. The first book, an Arabic-Italian dictionary, was published in 1822. In the next decades the Bulaq Press became the leading publishing house for the Arab world, also printing books in Ottoman Turkish. 

References: Özege 4218. Kutlar, Fatma Sabiha (1996). Arpaemîni-zâde Sâmî Dîvânı: Tenkitli Metin-İnceleme-Özel Adlar Dizini I-II. Doktora Tezi. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi (http://www.turkedebiyatiisimlersozlugu.com/docs/sami.pdf).