Onur Yazıcıgil, a designer and university lecturer at Sabanci University in Istanbul, has given us valuable insight into the history of printing and typography of the last three hundred years in the Ottoman Empire and in Turkey.

“You need to know what you gain to understand what you have lost”, the designer began his lecture, making this the leading motive throughout his talk.

In the past, Ottoman books had been solely nonclerical, giving rise to books about geography, sciences, etc. Onur displayed a wide collection of examples, ranging from old books, to newspapers and magazines. A remarkable example was a collection of old type specimens. These were especially interesting due to their content, which presented the history of letterpress, rather than the blind text often used today. It was possible to obtain such a collection of specimens due to the fact that it was impossible in Turkey to publish religious literature; all was connected with God, and all religious literature had very strict rules. This is in strong contrast to Europe, where the largest bestseller was the Bible and where the clergy established educational centres, through which faith was spread.

In his lecture, Onur also refered to the historical roots of typographical development. The Ottoman Empire had for years used Arabic characters. Arabic characters however contained a range of local influences, Armenian for example. In the past, Johannes Guttenberg had been celebrated in the Ottoman Empire as the leading figure in letterpress. History has however forgotten Ohannes Mühendisyan, who was a true pioneer of letterpress in the Ottoman Empire.

In the last century, the written form changed from Arabic to Latin letters. This political decision complicated many things. The change to Latin letters has over time made all official documents unreadable, effecting a breaking with historical ties. This is one of the reason that Onur is trying to refer to historical roots and to highlight the fact, that the history of the written form is much richer, than the “repetitive” less melodic Latin characters.

JR