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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
The production of the mechanical clock, the printing press, and firearms in Western Europe during the Middle Ages is considered the precursor to many subsequent technological advances. This paper briefly reviews the introduction of these inventions to Iran, and the pace of their adoption in that country. Firearms were more readily accepted, but clocks and printing took a longer time to become prevalent. This paper will also examine some of the possible explanations for the contrast between the rapid spread of clocks and printing in Western Europe and the lack of their widespread adoption in Iran. This phenomenon cannot simply be attributed to scientific and technological backwardness, nor can it have been due merely to geographic or cultural differences. This underscores the significance of the overall social and economic conditions, which are in turn explored.
1 For a detailed history of the printing press see Febvre, Lucien and Martin, Henri-Jean, The Coming of the Book, trans. by Gerald, David (London, 1997)Google Scholar [originally published in French as L'Apparition du livere (Paris, 1958)]; and Eisenstein, Elizabeth, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book, 45–55.
3 Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book, 183–186.
4 For a brief history of the printing press in Iran see Floor, Willem, “C˘āp,” Encyclopaedia Iranica (London and New York, 1990), 4: 760–764Google Scholar.
5 Valle, Pietro Della, Safarnāmah-ye Pietro Della Valle, trans. by Shafa, Shoa'eddin (Tehran, 1348/1969), 323Google Scholar.
6 Chick, H., ed., A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia and the Papal Mission of the 17th and 18th Centuries (London, 1993), 1Google Scholar: 305–306.
7 Tarbiat, Mohammad Ali, “Tārīkh-e Ta'sīs-e Maṭba‘a—Maṭbū‘āt-e Pārsī,” Armaghan, Y12/6 (Tehran, 1310/1931), 371Google Scholar.
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qīqāt-e Irānī, ed. by Teimouri, Morteza (Isfahan, 1354/1975), 1: 244–245Google Scholar; also see Ra'in, Esma‘il, Avalīn Chāpkhānah-e Iran (Tehran, 1347/1968), 21–27Google Scholar.
9 For a history of paper-making in Iran, see Floor, Willem, Traditional Crafts in Qajar Iran, 1800–1925 (Costa Mesa, 2003), 270–289Google Scholar.
10 Ra'in, Avalīn Chāpkhānah-e Iran, 27.
11 Chardin, John, Sīyāhatnāmah-e Chardin, trans. by Abbasi, Mohammad (Tehran, 1349–50/1971), 1: 296Google Scholar. Parts of this book were translated from French into English as Travels in Persia (London, 1927).
12 For a history of the Mechanical Clock, see Landess, David S., Revolution in Time (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar.
13 Landess, Revolution in Time, 86–87.
14 Landess, Revolution in Time, 254.
15 Landess, Revolution in Time, 230–231.
16 For an analysis of the introduction of the Mechanical Clock to Iran, see Nourbakhsh, Mohammad Reza, “Sā'at-e Mekānīkī dar Iran,” Ayandeh, 13 (Tehran, 1366/1987): 495–508Google Scholar. Also for a brief history of clock-making in Iran, see Floor, Willem, “Clocks,” Encyclopaedia Iranica (New York, 1992), 5: 713–718Google Scholar.
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18 Iṣfahāni, Muḥammad Hāfeẓ, Natījat-al-Dawla (Tehran, 1350/1971)Google Scholar. For a study of clock-making in Natījat-al-Dawla, see Mohebbi, Parviz, Funūn va Manābe‘ dar Iran, trans. by Gharib, Aram (Tehran, 1383/2004), 259–274Google Scholar, original: Mohebbi, Parviz, Techniques et resources en Iran: du 7e au 19e siècle (Tehran, 1996)Google Scholar.
19 Nourbaksh, “Sā‘at-e Mekānīkī dar Iran,” 401.
20 Nourbaksh, “Sā‘at-e Mekānīkī dar Iran,” 401.
21 For example, see Chardin, Sīyāhatnāmah-e Chardin, 4: 354, or Chardin, Travels in Persia, 249; and Tavernier, Jean Baptiste, The Six Voyages of John Baptist Tarvernier (London, 1678), 207–209Google Scholar.
22 For a history of firearms, see Chase, Kenneth, Firearms, A Global History to 1700 (Cambridge, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
23 For a short review of firearms in Iran, see Matthee, Rudi, “Firearms—i. History,” Encyclopaedia Iranica (New York, 1999), 9: 619–628Google Scholar, and Mohebbi, Parviz, “Firearms—ii. Production of Cannons and Muskets,” Encyclopaedia Iranica (New York, 1999), 9: 628–631Google Scholar.
24 Chase, Firearms, 114–115.
25 Chardin, Sīyāhatnāmah-e Chardin, 8: 206–207.
26 Chase, Firearms, 119. Also, see Chardin, Sīyāhatnāmah-e Chardin, 8: 216, and Ross, Sir Denison, Sir Anthony Shirley and his Adventures in Persia (London 1933), 20Google Scholar–21.
27 Chardin, Sīyāhatnāmah-e Chardin, 4: 341–342, or Chardin, Travels in Persia, 271.
28 Rajabi, Parviz, “Artesh-e Iran dar Dorehye Zandīyyah,” Barrasīhā-ye Tārīkhī, VI/3 (Tehran, 1350/1971): 7Google Scholar.
29 For an interesting discussion on the usability of the early firearms, see Chase, Firearms, 23–27.
30 Munshī, Eskandar Beyg, Tārikh-e ‘Ālam Ārā-ye ‘Abbāsī (Tehran, 1334/1955), 1: 319Google Scholar.
31 Bayani, Khanbaba, “Mo‘arrefī-e Yek Noskhehye Khaṭṭi,” Addendum to Barrasīhā-ye Tārīkhī, VI/6 (Tehran, 1350/1971): 139–154Google Scholar. The pages of this manuscript are not in correct order. It seems that during a latter-day binding process the pages were mixed up. Unfortunately, this was not detected during publication in Barrasīhā-ye Tārīkhī. Fortunately, though, the original manuscript follows the tradition of placing the first word of the next page at the end of each page. By reviewing the original manuscript (kept at the Tehran University Central Library), one can somewhat accurately figure out the correct order of pages.
32 “As our understanding of the history of technology increases, it becomes clear that a new device merely opens a door; it does not compel one to enter. The acceptance or rejection of an invention, or the extent to which its implications are realized if it is accepted depends quite as much upon the conditions of society, and upon the imagination of its leaders, as upon the nature of technological item itself.” Jr.White, Lynn, Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford, 1964), 28Google Scholar.
33 For example, see Tavernier, The Six Voyages of John Baptist Tarvernier, 229.
34 During the presentation of an earlier version of this paper, Professor Richard Bulliet pointed to the particular impact of offset printing in the nineteenth century on the spread of printing, not only in Iran, but also in many other counties in the region. During the nineteenth century, the proliferating print shops in Iran, especially the privately owned ones, relied on offset printing. It should be noted, however, that on the one hand, several Persian and Arabic books were produced in Western Europe during the sixteenth century and beyond (for instance see Tarbiat, “Tārīkh-e Ta‘sīs-e Ma
ba‘a,” 371). On the other hand, although offset printing did help the spread of printing in that country, all of the early print shops which were set up during the first few decades of the nineteenth century pre-dated offset printing and were essentially prompted by the new government drive to adopt Western technology.
35 Della Valle, Safarnāmah-ye Pietro Della Valle, 348.