Amiri Press


The Amiri Press or Amiria Press is a printing press, and one of the main agencies with which Muhammad Ali Pasha modernized Egypt. The Amiria Press had a profound effect on Egyptian literature and intellectual life in the country and in the greater region, as scientific works in European languages were translated into Arabic.

History

The Amiria Press was established in 1820 and opened officially during the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1821. At first, it published military books for the Egyptian army, but it soon developed and started to print literary books, science books, and textbooks. It was also Cairo's most active and important Turkish-language press.
In October 1862, Muhammad Sa'id Pasha gave the press to Abdurrahman Bik Rushdi. It was then purchased by Isma'il Pasha who added it to the Da'ira Sunnia, or the royal possessions. Publications in this time included a Quran with commentary by Al-Zamakhshari.
The Amiria Press returned to the possession of the state in 1880, during the reign of Tewfik Pasha. A typeface developed by the Amiri Press in 1905 served as the primary inspiration for the Amiri font, a naskh script designed by Dr. Khaled Hosny for typesetting body text. In 1924 they published the iconic 1342 Cairo text. A large number of pre-1924 Qurans were destroyed by dumping them in the River Nile.
On August 13, 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser passed Law 312 of 1956 ordering the establishment of the Amiria Press Authority under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Trade & Industry. The first meeting of its administration—headed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry's administrator at the time, Aziz Sedky—was held on September 1, 1956. The ministry later decided to build a new 35,000 m2 building for the Amiria Press Authority, and equip it with state-of-the-art printing technology to spread its messages.
The Amiria Press Authority officially began operations at its new location on July 28, 1973 during the Sadat administration under Ibrahim Salem Muhammadin, Minister of Trade and Industry at the time.

Publications of the Amiria Press Authority