Muslim theologians blocked Arabic printing for centuries as desecration

Evidence

Muslim theologians argued that to set up the holy language of the Qur’an in print would be a kind of desecration. (Apart from the religious objection to printing, the vested interests of the professional scribes and copyists also had some weight.) Only in the late eighteenth century was Ibrahim Muteferrika allowed to set up a printing press using an Arabic typeface in Istanbul. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 138

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme in this book and to media-determinism debates about how technologies reshape religious communities.
• CANDY: The counterintuitive fact that Islam’s holy language resisted printing until the 18th century while Europe had Arabic presses in 1514 is a great conversation starter.
• QUESTION: Curious how the eventual Istanbul press circumvented the desecration objection — was there a theological shift?