Director of National Library of Iran Speaks About History of Publishing at the 10th Conference of Advancements in Publishing

Dr. Eshagh Salahi the Director of the National Library of Iran said at the 10th Conference of advancements in Book Publishing in Tehran about the History of Print in Iran.

The printing as we know it in today's world started intermittently in Iran nearly 362 years ago and from 183 years ago on a continual and nonstop basis.
The intermittent history of print in Iran started with Zaboor-e Davood in Jolfa (Isfahan) during the 17th century and regular printing began with the Fath-Nameh and Jahadieh Thesis in Tabriz during the early 18th century.

However, when a printing facility was established for the first time in Tabriz and the Fath-Nameh and Jahadieh were subsequently published, Mirza Mohammad Saleh Shirazi (founder of the first publication in Iran) had yet to graduate from university in England.

In 1847 Mohammad Shah died and Naseredin Shah became the Qajar sovereign. During the latter's tenure, the printing industry in Iran, endured a number of ups and downs and fluctuations.

During Naseredin Shah's reign, there were two publications named "Iran" and "Ettela" (information) that were character-printed and published in limited numbers but most of the editions of the above two publications were stone-printed.

There were three other publications during those times that were character-printed as well. One was called Zaher-Yaradi-Bahra (meaning the ray of sun or beam of light), La Patrie (meaning homeland) and Echo De Pars (meaning voice of Iran).

Publishing and printing should be divided into three periods for the 61 year duration of Mohammad Shah and Naseredin Shah's reign of power, which was correspondingly the first era of periodical journalism in Iran. The first period lasted 25 years from 1836-1862. The second period ran for 10 years from 1862 to 1871. The third period was from 1871 to 1895 for a term of 26 years.

A total of 4 publications were issued until 1862. From 1862 onward, the Daral Tabae'e office was established and the printing and publishing business became organized and systematic. This period of organization and systematic operation continued for a decade until 1873, when the responsibility for government run publishing and printing was transferred to Mohammad Hassan Khan (later known as Etemad-al Saltaneh). From the above date until 1883, he was in charge of basically anything that had to do with printing and publishing. It should be mentioned that the domain controlled by him was turned into a ministry from 1882 and he was appointed as the Minister of Press.

He also noted about the discontinued print of Historical Islamic Books Translated from Arabic and Persian to English between 50-100 years ago and published by various Publishers and Islamic Societies and invited publishers to make these English Books live again.The Detailed list can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.hotup.ir/upload/r0j_islamic_books_history.xlsx

LNL (Looking for New Life !) Publishers News
+44-020-8798-0406
145-157 St John Street, London, England, EC1V 4PW, City of London

Ali Rouhani - +44-741-841-5583