The Tulip Period brings peace, gardens, and the first Ottoman printing press
A grand vizier who preferred palaces to war presides over the empire's first Turkish-language printed books before a mob kills him.
Quick facts
- Sultan
- Ahmed III (r. 1703-1730)
- Grand vizier
- Nevsehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha (executed 1730)
- First printed book
- Vankulu Lugati (Arabic dictionary), 1729
- Ended by
- Patrona Halil rebellion, 1730
What happened
After the Treaty of Passarowitz ended a costly war with Austria in 1718, Sultan Ahmed III and his grand vizier, Nevsehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha, turned toward peace and cultural patronage in a period later historians named the Tulip Period, for the flower's popularity among the Ottoman elite. Ibrahim Pasha built the Sadabad summer palace complex outside Istanbul and supported new artistic and architectural styles influenced by European Baroque forms. In 1727, after consulting religious authorities for approval, Ibrahim Muteferrika, a Hungarian-born convert to Islam, received permission to establish the empire's first Turkish-language printing press with movable Arabic type; in 1729 he printed his first work, a two-volume Arabic dictionary. The period ended in 1730 when the Patrona Halil rebellion, driven by resentment of elite extravagance and heavy wartime taxation, forced Ahmed III's abdication; Ibrahim Pasha was captured and executed by the crowd.
Why it matters
Muteferrika's press, though it printed only 17 books before his death, broke a long-standing resistance to printing in Turkish and opened the door to the wider adoption of print technology in the Ottoman world over the following century. The rebellion that ended the period also set a pattern that recurred through Ottoman history: reform paired with visible court luxury proved politically fragile when ordinary subjects bore the cost.
How we know
A Library of Congress Law Library blog post traces Muteferrika's petition for permission to print, the religious authorities' approval, and the 1729 publication of his first book, citing period sources including contemporary scholarship in the Papers of the Bibliographic Society of Canada.
Sources
- Alexander Salopek, Law Library of Congress (In Custodia Legis). Ibrahim Muteferrika, First Muslim Printer of the Ottoman Empire · Primary sourceblogs.loc.gov · The domain "blogs.loc.gov" is on our Primary source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Ottoman Empire · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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