Crafting global typography: origins, dissemination, and adaptation of naskh types from Istanbul

This is the latest version of this item.

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1356186326101473

This article examines the transregional life and typographic legacy of a 24-point Ottoman naskh printing type (MI-24), developed in 1867 by the Ottoman-Armenian punchcutter Ohannes Mühendisyan in collaboration with the court calligrapher Ḳāḍīʿasker Muṣṭafá ʿİzzet Efendi. Celebrated for its exceptional calligraphic fidelity and mechanical refinement, MI-24 emerged as the pinnacle of Arabic-script typography in the Ottoman Empire. Drawing on previously unexamined archival materials, this study reconstructs MI-24’s production, dissemination, and adaptation across a wide geography—from Istanbul to Beirut, Cairo, Tehran, Kabul, and even Chicago, London and Oxford. It explores how regional actors including Jesuit missionaries, Armenian typefounders, Arab Nahḍa intellectuals, and European Orientalists engaged with and modified this typographic model to suit diverse cultural, religious, and technological needs. In tracing these typographic networks, the article situates MI-24 at the intersection of Islamic visual culture, print modernity, and global knowledge circulation. Far from being a product confined to Istanbul’s imperial presses, MI-24 became a mobile and malleable artifact—reshaped by local aesthetics and political agendas. Ultimately, this article reframes Arabic-script typography as a dynamic site of visual negotiation and transimperial collaboration, contributing to broader discourses on print culture, design history, and the materialities of Islamic text production.