Asian printing house

The first petition addressed to Emperor Paul I about the opening of the Tatar printing house in the Kazan province was submitted by retired lieutenant Gabdulgaziz Burashev in 1797 . The emperor signed the permit, but it was rejected by the Senate . Nevertheless, by a decree of September 13, 1800, the Senate granted the second petition, supported by the Tatars of other provinces, and allowed the organization of a government printing house in Kazan . Its contents were entrusted to Burashev ^[2] .

The printing house, called Asian, was located in the building of the First Men's Gymnasium , which also carried out censorship control ^[3] . The Orenburg Muftiate was engaged in checking the compliance of books with Islamic dogma. The printing house had only arabographic fonts ^[4] . According to the decree of the Senate, it was allowed to print only " alcorans , prayer books and the like." Burashev, at his own expense, purchased typesetting from the Asian branch of the Senate Printing House, and also wrote typesetters Hamza Mamyshev and Gali Rakhmatullin. At the end of 1803, Burashev was removed from the management of the printing house, but until 1805 he remained its customer ^[2] .

Among the following managers of the Asian printing house were merchants Gali Apanayev ^[5] with their father Yusup Apanayev, as well as the Yunusov brothers ^[4] . Ibrahim Khalfin , enlightener and teacher of Kazan University , worked in the printing house ^[2] .

In 1829, the Asian printing house was attached to the printing house of Kazan University ^[2] .

The first books printed at the Asian printing house in 1801 were Attagodji ( Reading by syllables ) and Haftiyak (excerpts from the Qur'an). Attaggi was a Tatar alphabet combined with a collection of prayers. Subsequently, this book was reprinted almost every year (sometimes even several times a year) under the titles “Elifba iman shartlary belen” ( “The alphabet with prayers” ), “Saritel iman” or “Iman Sharta” ( “Conditions of Faith” ). In 1802 , in addition to reprinting the ABC, 6 new books were published: Ustuvani Kitaba ( The Book of Ustuvani ) by M. Ustuvani from Damascus , Pirguli (on Islam and Rites) M. Pirguli, Subateur Gadzhizni ( Reinforcement the weak ” ) A. Sufi et al. ^[2]

In August 1803, the printing of the original edition of the Koran began. The authenticity of the text was monitored by the imam of the Old Tatar settlement Mohammed Abdrazyakov ^[1] . The “Kazan version” of the Koran was recognized as canonical and began to spread both in the eastern regions of the Russian Empire, and in other Muslim states. Since 1808, the previous version of the Koran’s publication, prepared in St. Petersburg ^[4] , was also printed.

In 1806 - 1809 new books “Seyful-Muluk” (a story about the wanderings of Tsarevich Seyful-Muluk to the eastern countries) and “Risalei Muhammadiya” ( “Messages of Muhammad” ) ^{[2] were} published .

The Asian printing house also carried out some orders from Kazan University. In 1808, Professor Christian Fren published the books “Ahmadiya” and “Description of Some Silver Coins of the Samanids, ” in 1814 - two poems in Arabic (the poet of the pre-Islamic era of Al-Shanfara and the poet of the 11th – 12th centuries At-Tugrai). In 1813, the “Highest Manifesto of Victory over the French ” was published in the Tatar language ^[2] .

From 1801 to 1829, the printing house published 93 titles of books ^[2] .

• Gabdelganeeva G. G. The Tatar book of Kazan in the first half of the 19th century // Bulletin of Kazan State University of Culture and Arts: journal. - Kazan, 2012.
• Publishing (neopr.) . Kazan (Volga) Federal University - official site . Date of treatment August 3, 2019.