1st Printing Press in the Middle East

The Printing press of Saint Antonius in “Quzhayya” is the first printing press in the Middle East. It is located in a monastery in the Valley of the Saints in the mountains of the north Kaza of Lebanon. According to historians, a movable type printing press was imported from England to the Saint Antonius Monastery in 1585. The first publication was the book of “Mazameer” dated from 1610, and now present in the University of the Holy Ghost in Kaslik, Jouniyé, Lebanon.


Saint Antonius press did not print with Arabic letters but with Syriac letters. The books where in Garshuni or Karshuni (Syriac alphabet: ܓܪܫܘܢܝ, Arabic alphabet: كرشوني). Books were in Arabic writings using the Syriac alphabet. The word “Garshuni” was used by George Kiraz to coin the term “garshunography”, denoting the writing of one language in the script of another. Nowadays we still use the word ”karshouné” only to signify that a person is talking nonsense or that he is not being clear in his/her pronunciation.

The press was renewed in the beginnings of the 19th century and a special place called “al ma’rama” was reserved for it in the monastery. In the year 1854 the work of the press was stopped due to the situation back then, to be renewed again in 1871 and then to stop completely in the beginning of the Second World War.




Nowadays the printing press in Saint Antonius monastery is not as well preserved as the printing press of “Al Zakher” in “Khinshara”. There are only the English printing press displayed, some books around it, a few Syriac metal letters typeset in a matrix, and some printing tools that were used in the press.


Keep note that Saint Antonius Press in Quzhayya is the first printing press in the Middle East (using Syriac letters), while the printing press of “Al Zakher” in “Khinshara” was one of the first Arabic printing presses in the Middle East after the Arabic printing presses in Turkey and Syria that preceded it a few years earlier.