The Thinking Muslim The Ottoman Ulema 2: The Printing Press, Coffee and Secularisation with Dr Yakoob Ahmed
Dec 4, 2021
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Religious Rulings Responded To Uncertainty
- Early Muslim jurists debated new consumables like coffee and tobacco because they first needed to diagnose their effects, not from reflexive backwardness.
- Legal opinions shifted as understanding and social context (e.g., coffeehouses as political spaces) changed over time.
Printing Was Restricted, Not Rejected
- The alleged Ottoman ban on printing is more nuanced: restrictions targeted specific religious texts rather than an absolute ban on the press.
- Practical, cultural and technical reasons (script complexity, manuscript traditions) also slowed Arabic printing adoption.
Oral Tradition Versus Print Equals Cultural Shift
- Oral and memorization traditions were central in Islamic learning, so printing threatened established pedagogies and legal practices.
- The Republic later equated print literality with progress, sidelining oral scholarly authority.