ABSTRACT
This survey covers, in addition to the Arab countries, that is, those where Arabic is the main written language, some aspects of Arabic printing history in the broader sense, involving book production in all languages using the Arabic script, a historic vehicle of Islamic culture. But the many detailed studies of Ottoman Turkish printing history are not considered: for a comprehensive list of publications in this field in the period 1981-95, see M. Btilent Varlik, Tiirkiye basin-yayin tarihi bibliyogmfyasi (Ankara: Kebikec Yayinlan, 1995). Nor has it been possible to survey the fewer but significant specialized contributions on Persian, Urdu, Malay, and other Muslim languages.
