Rome printed Arabic books chiefly to convert Eastern Christians
Evidence
The primary aim in printing books in Arabic was not to assist the academic study of the Arab world nor even to publish polemical works against Islam, but rather to produce Arabic books that could be used in preaching missions to the Oriental Christians (the Copts, Maronites, Nestorians and others), seeking to convert those lost sheep to Catholicism. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 137
Categorization
- SEED: Angle: the machine for converting Muslim-adjacent Christians created the infrastructure proto-Orientalists would inherit — printing against its purpose.