AHC: Printing Presses in the Islamic World

In OTL the printing press didn't catch on in the Islamic world until well into the 19th century which likely proved disastrous to development in that part of the world as the societies that had developed the printing press tended to have higher literacy rates. With a POD no later than 1750 have printing presses be widespread in the Islamic world.
 
In OTL the printing press didn't catch on in the Islamic world until well into the 19th century which likely proved disastrous to development in that part of the world as the societies that had developed the printing press tended to have higher literacy rates. With a POD no later than 1750 have printing presses be widespread in the Islamic world.

Well without the chaos of the Mongol invasion I could see a much more diverse Islamic world (if not more open), so at the very least you'd get a larger population, a greater number of writers, and more Islamic theological schools. This would increase the need for Korans, so that would probably be your impetus for adopting the printing press.

Their impact on literacy would probably be quite minimal, though, since Korans are written in Classical Arabic. Though the introduction of the printing press itself might, like in Europe, instigate a push towards vernacular Korans (though of course the European situation isn't 100% applicable to the Islamic situation).
 
Honestly the biggest change here would probably be making the Arabic script more typeing friendly. Otl it's really not good for it. A lot like how even though the chineese invented it but it didn't really catch on because chineese writing isn't very well designed for block printing.
 
Yeah, calligraphy is an important part of Arabian (and Persian? correct me if I'm wrong) culture. So, it would be hard to introduce it in the way it was used in Europe.

My best bet: butterfly away the Mongols, introduce printing based on printing blocks on China, probably develop in Bahgdag, which was a cultural and economic center before the Mongol Invasions. Use the printing press for commercial documents that need mass printing (official documents where often judged by calligraphy, so there isn't much room there). Eventually, someone will figure using it for books and panphlets. Keep going from there.
 
Honestly the biggest change here would probably be making the Arabic script more typeing friendly. Otl it's really not good for it. A lot like how even though the chineese invented it but it didn't really catch on because chineese writing isn't very well designed for block printing.

You mean not well suited for moveable type printing. Chinese is well suited for block printing and was in wide use for a thousand years.

Both Chinese and Arabic are ideally suited for lithography. Someone needs to invent that earlier.
 
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