Description

Ali Ufki (Wojciech BOBOWSKI, Albertus BOBOVIUS LEOPOLITANUS, circa 1610 – 1675), translator – Jean Daniel KIEFFER (1767-1833), editor.

Paris:دار الطابعة الملكية [Imprimerie impériale / Royal Printing House] – Printer; British and Foreign Bible Society – Publisher, 1827.

The author of this translation was Wojciech Bobowski, a Polish musician who lived from circa 1610 to 1675. He is better known by his Muslim name, Ali Ufki. Bobowski was born into a Protestant family in Poland. In 1632, he was abducted by the Tatars and sold as a slave in Istanbul. After arriving in the city, he converted to Islam. As a talented musician and dragoman, he quickly gained access to the highest circles of the Ottoman court and earned his freedom. By the time of his death, he was known to speak 16 languages.
Ali Ufki, a deeply religious man, began translating the New Testament in 1662. His goal was to introduce this Christian text to the Islamic world to foster better mutual cultural understanding. He completed the translation in 1664, with final corrections made the following year. Although he intended to publish his translation in printed form, the project was never completed.

A Dutch merchant named Laurens de Geer brought the manuscript to Leyden for publication. He died in 1666, and the translation remained in the city archives for the next 150 years.

In 1819, Ali Ufki’s translation of the New Testament was published for the first time by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The book was printed in Paris at the Imprimerie impériale, which at that time housed the finest Arabic types in Europe. Eight years later, in 1827, the first printed edition of the entire Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments, was also produced by Ali Ufki and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This edition was printed in Paris and edited by Jean Daniel Kieffer (1767-1833), who made significant corrections, particularly to the New Testament, refining Ali Ufki’s fine 17th-century Ottoman text.

This first printed translation of the New Testament from 1819 was followed by the complete Bible translation in 1827, which became the foundation for subsequent Turkish New Testament translations used by Armenians and Greeks. The current book is a separately published New Testament with a decorative original publisher’s binding. This text was often bound and sold together with the New Testament.

The Arabic Types

The book was printed using exquisite Arabic typefaces that originated in the 17th century. Among other notable uses, these types were employed by Napoleon in the first modern printing press in the Arab world.

The typefaces were created in the early 17th century with the support of François Savary de Brèves, a French ambassador in Istanbul, who developed a fascination for Ottoman and Arabic culture. After being appointed as an ambassador in Rome in 1706, de Brèves founded a printing press in the city called Typographia Savariana, specializing in the printing of texts in Arabic typefaces, which he played a role in developing.

These Arabic types are considered some of the most elegant ever created.

After the death of Savary de Brèves in 1627, his types were acquired by Richelieu for the Kingdom of France to promote the spread of Catholicism in the Levant.

More than a century later, in 1787, the types were rediscovered by the French orientalist, sinologist, and Turkologist Joseph de Guignes (1721–1800).

In the late 18th century, Napoleon decided to use these elegant Arabic typefaces as the foundation for his planned printing press, the Imprimerie Nationale, in Egypt. The complete set of presses and type was transported from France to Cairo, though their arrival was delayed due to the weight of the machines. As transporting them by camel proved unsuccessful, the presses and type were eventually transferred by boat.

The Imprimerie Nationale was established in October 1798 at Azbakiyah Square, in the same building that housed the Institut d’Égypte. By January 1799, the last set of type arrived, leading to the publication of the first editions of the newspapers Courrier and Décade. This marked the beginning of the first modern press in the Arab world.

The official printer for Napoleon was Jean-Joseph Marcel. On January 1, 1803, Marcel returned to France with printing types and was appointed director of the Imprimerie Impériale. He held this position until 1815 and during that time became the primary publisher of books in Arabic type. In the following decades, publications using these types were frequently requested by foreign institutions.