A group of cylinder seals and others have been discovered in many archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq. Clay seals engraved with a simple design have been used since 5000 BC. It was printed on the doors designated for the possession and preservation of goods. It was also found on bags and baskets that were transported by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Syria and Iraq. In 3500 BC, the cylinder seal was invented. This green stone, which is 3.9 centimeters long, dates back to 2300 BC, as in Mari on the middle Euphrates. Accordingly, the gods, male and female, were identified through their horned helmets, such as the goddess Ishtar, the sun god Shamash, and the water god Enki, followed by his minister.
Printing entered late due to the harsh conditions of the Ottoman rule in it at the time, where the first stone press was established in Kadhimiya in 1821 AD, but printing appeared in real in 1856 AD when the Dominican monks established a printing press for them in Mosul and established a special section for binding and gilding in it. In 1869 the Ottoman governor Midhat Pasha established a printing press The mandate to print the official Al-Bilad newspaper in both Arabic and Turkish. It is a commercial printing press, but it was later neglected for a period of time and only the government newspaper was printed.
In the eastern Mediterranean to India
During the years 2200 BC. 1800 BC Trade flourished between Mesopotamia and India across the Gulf. The most important trades were circular stamp-seals, which were known as Persian animal-skilled seals and were characterized by their abstraction. Some of them had a convex bull and Indian writings. It was made of fine stone and had a perforated protrusion for hanging. Since about the year 2000 BC. The Persian Gulf seals were replaced by Dilmun seals, which had a lower protrusion and were grooved by three parallel lines.
The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Mesopotamian civilizations used to transcribe books and handwritten documents with a quill or pen after dipping them in liquid ink to be written on papyrus. This method of manual transcription remained in circulation until the days of the Arabs, when they wrote their words on parchment, skin and bones.. Books were known as Manuscripts. In Rome the copying of several editions was done by literate slaves.
in Egypt
The first printer appeared in Egypt during the French campaign, a printer brought by Napoleon in 1798 AD, which was known as the propaganda printer, because Napoleon wanted through it to entice the Egyptians to him through advertising. And when it was established, it became known as the National Printer. This printing press came out of Egypt with the exit of the French campaign in 1801, and Egypt remained free of printing presses for about twenty years, until Muhammad Ali Pasha established in 1821 the Bulaq Press, in which the official government newspaper Al-Waqa’i Al-Masrya was published in it. Governmental publications and decrees, school and military books, as well as old Arabic books or books that were ordered to be translated into Arabic. The number of books printed by this printing press between 1822-1830 AD was about fifty books, which rose at the end of 1850 to three hundred books on various literary and historical subjects. In Egypt, the National Coptic Press was established in 1860 AD, and six years later, Abdullah Abu Al-Saud established the Nile Valley Press.
As for Egypt, printing presses were known with the advent of the French campaign in 1798 AD, and Muhammad Ali founded the first printing press, the Bulaq Press in 1819 AD. Yemen 1877 AD and the rest of the Arab and Islamic countries later.
In Yemen
The first printing presses appeared in Yemen in 1877 AD when Sultan Abdul Hamid II imported them in March 1877 AD. He ordered the issuance of the Sana’a newspaper as an official newspaper for the state of Yemen. A weekly newspaper was issued in 1297 AH corresponding to 1878. It was issued every Tuesday. It was the first official newspaper in the Arabian Peninsula with the aim of serving government interests. The most important scientific discoveries.
In China and the Far East
In the second century AD, the Chinese had invented a way to print books. This was an evolution of printing that was practiced by printing drawings and designs on cloth since the first century CE. It was facilitated printing by the Chinese invention of the paper industry in 105 BC. And the spread of Buddhism in China at the time. The prevalent writing materials in the ancient Western world were papyrus, papyrus and vellum (thin skin), which were not suitable for printing. Because papyrus is crisp. The parchment was taken from the inner layer of fresh animal skin and was expensive. But paper was durable and cheap. Buddhist teachings were seen in large quantities due to the great demand for them and their spread. This made the beginning of mechanical printing appear. In the year 200 AD. The Chinese began engraving inscriptions and images on wooden blocks. The Tipitaka Buddhist holy book was printed in 972 AD. 130 thousand pages in wooden templates. And printing has evolved from wooden cliches with pictures of the entire page text to the method of assembly of movable type movable letters and stacking them in (chassis) molds. And because the Chinese alphabet contains from 2000 to 40 thousand separate characters. This was having trouble printing the letters. That is why separate letters were not followed, and this problem faced the Koreans in the 14th century AD. They continued to follow the traditional method, of course, with yarza carved wood blocks.