[Kitab'i Mukaddes].

editio princeps of the bible in Osmanli

Scarce complete first Ottoman Turkish edition of the Bible, published in paris.

Based on the translation of Wojciech Bobowski (known as Ali Bey 1610–1675) and referred to as the 'Kitab'i Mukaddes' (Holy Bible), this text was the first complete Turkish translation of the Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments, and became the basis for later Turkish translations used by Armenian and Greek Christians. The text was printed in Arabic character with full vocalisation in an edition of 5000 copies of the complete Bible and 2000 issues of the New Testament printed separately. The aesthetic and elegant type are notably those used by the Imprimerie Royale in Paris, reminiscent of many important early Arabic and Turkish publications from Napoleonic Egypt at the turn of the nineteenth-century.

In 1820 J. D. Kieffer became the first Agent of the B. F. B. S. in France, and in the same year he began a thorough revision of Ali Bey's translation of the Bible comparing it with the original texts, as well as with the standard English, French, and German versions. The translation of this edition of the New Testament was carefully revised in view of the criticism passed on the 1819 edition of the same (apparently the earliest Arab-Turkish edition of the New Testament in Osmanli). For more information on see Darlow and Moule 9456.

First edition, two parts in one vol., the complete Bible (996 pp. Old Testament, 7pp. errata; 318 pp. New Testament, 3pp. errata), large 4to (26 x 21 cm); text printed entirely in Ottoman Turkish (Osmanli) in vocalised Arabic typeface, bookplates removed from lower board, internally clean and crisp condition; contemporary blind-tooled calf, edges and spine ends skillfully repaired, overall a very handsome copy.