Family Name: Müteferrika
First Name: Ibrahim
Birth Date: 1672
Birth Place: Kolozsvár (Cluj)
Death Date: 1745
Death Place: Costantinople
Main places of activity:
Place From
Costantinople 1693
Personal info:
Education
While we do not know Ibrahim Müteferrika's name of birth, he was born from Christian parents of Hungarian origins in the Transylvanian town of Cluj, in today's Romania.

He assumed the name Ibrahim after converting to Islam, although the reasons behind his choice are unclear. Some scholars suggest he was made prisoner during the Imre Thököly uprisings (1692-3) and embraced Islam to avoid becoming a slave in the Ottoman navy, after he was sold in Costantinople in 1695. Others believe his conversion to be a sincere and direct development of his early Socinianism, as Müteferrika himself describes it as a voluntary act he had planned since his early years.

After the conversion, Müteferrika learned Arabic and Farsi and studied Muslim theology, enthusiastically embracing Ottoman culture.
Career

Ibrahim received the title of müteferrika (literally 'court steward' or 'chamberlain') between 1705 and 1711 and had by then become one of the favorite courtiers of the sultan Ahmed III, for whom he performed different functions.

In 1716, Müteferrika started his career as an interpreter and diplomat, assuming the role of official Ottoman envoy by the Hungarian prince Ferenc Rakoczy II, an ally against the Habsburgs. His knowledge of foreign languages made him a central figure in the anti-Russian negotiations between the Ottomans and the Swedes during the Great Northern War (1700-21).

In 1727, after pleading at length it would promote a wider divulgation of knowledge for students of lower classes, Müteferrika obtained from the sultan the permission to set up an 'official' printing house with custom-made Arabic fonts, provided it did not issue religious or legal works. Shaped on the model of the French Imprimerie Royale, it introduced the Western print culture in Costantinople in opposition to the scribal tradition and its fervent ulema supporters, issuing a total of 17 different titles until it was dismantled in 1742. Müteferrika himself operated the press, edited and prompted some 13,200 volumes, the majority of which revolved around history (both of the Ottoman empire and of the rest of the world), astronomy and geography (maps figured prominently) and translation practices and instruments (dictionaries and vocabularies).

In the 1730s, Müteferrika also held several military posts, proving decisive in the Franco-Ottoman alliance against the Habsburg (1737-39). By 1738, his achievements earned him the title of divan hocasi, or consultant to the Imperial council.
Financial Situation

Müteferrika received 120 akçe per diem as a salary.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Müteferrika played an important role in the transmission of Western ideas to the Ottoman empire, his printing press acting as a veritable machine designed for cultural mediation. His interest for mechanical arts and practical naturalism made Müteferrika focus his efforts on scientific tracts, pushing for instance for the transformation of Ottoman ethnographic geography into cartography.

In order to adapt their contents to Constantinople's audience, he translated original scientific Latin works into a polished Arabic poetic idiom, which often removed problematic references to certain European authors. An example in this sense is Müteferrika use of Pourchot's harmless version of Descartes' philosophy to engage with the latter's physics and reaffirm the scientific accuracy of the Copernican system against the Ptolemaic perspectives.

secondary bibliography references

William J. Watson, 'Ibrahim Muteferrika and Turkish Incunabula', Journal of the American Oriental Society, 88, n° 3 (1968), 435-41.

Gerald Duverdier, 'Savary de Brèves et Ibrahim Müteferrika: Deux drogmans culturels à l’origine de l’imprimerie Turque', Bulletin du Bibliophile, 3 (1987), 322-59.

Zorka Ivanova, 'Les éditions imprimées par Ibrahim Müteferrika et la bibliothèque du waqf de Vidin', Études Balkaniques, 1, n°16 (2009), 199-218.

Orlin Sabev, 'Portrait and Self-Portrait: Ibrahim Müteferrika’s Mind Games', Journal of Ottoman Studies, 44 (2014), 99–121.

Vefa Erginbas, 'Enlightenment in the Ottoman Context: Ibrahim Müteferrika and His Intellectual Landscape', in Historical Aspects of Printing and Publishing in Languages of the Middle East, edited by Geoffrey Roper, Brill, 2014, 53-100.

B. Harun Küçük, 'Ibrahim Müteferrika's Copernican Rhetoric', in Translating Early Modern Science, edited by Sietske Fransen, Niall Hodson and Karl A. E. Enenkel, BRILL, 2017, 258-86.

Marinos Sariyannis, A History of Ottoman Political Thought up to the Early Nineteenth Century, Brill, 2018, 381-400.


           


Translations

  • Institutiones philosophicæ ad faciliorem veterum, ac recentorum philosophorum lectionem comparatae

  • Translation Title: Cihannüma
  • Original Author: Edme Pourchot
  • Original title: Institutiones philosophicæ ad faciliorem veterum, ac recentorum philosophorum lectionem comparatae
  • Publ. Year From: 1694 to: 1729
  • lang: Latin
  • Translation: Cihannüma
  • Pub. Place: Constantinople
  • Pub. Date: 1731
  • Lang: Arabic
  • Note:

    Müteferrika used his preface to Katip Çelebi's Cihannüma or 'Cosmorama' to translate passage of Pourchot.

  • Specimen theoriae magneticae

  • Translation Title: Füyuzat-ı Mıknatısiye
  • Original Author: Christoph Eberhard
  • Original title: Specimen theoriae magneticae
  • Publ. Year From: 1718 to:
  • lang: Latin
  • Translation: Füyuzat-ı Mıknatısiye
  • Pub. Place: Costantinople
  • Pub. Date: 1732
  • Lang: Arabic
  • Note:

    Müteferrika's 'Magnetic Effluvia' is an uncredited translation, which also includes some parts of Pourchot's Institutiones discussing Cartesian magnetism.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista