Bible Ottoman Turkish 1912 American Bible Society Armenian Publisher Old New Testament

Kitab-ı Mukaddes – Constantinople Edition (1912)

Description:

This is a 1912 Istanbul (Dersaadet) edition of Kitab-ı Mukaddes, printed by the American Bible Society and produced at Agop Matyosyan Printing House in Istanbul. The printing house was operated by an Ottoman-Armenian publisher, reflecting the multicultural and multi-religious publishing environment of the late Ottoman Empire.

Kitab-ı Mukaddes contains both the Old Testament (Ahd-i Atik — including the Torah and Psalms) and the New Testament (Ahd-i Cedid — the Gospels) in a single volume. It serves as a complete Bible text used for religious reading and study.

The American Bible Society, founded in 1816 in New York, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the printing, translation, and distribution of the Bible. From the early 19th century onward, it operated within the Ottoman territories, producing translations in local languages and making biblical texts accessible to diverse communities.

In the multicultural structure of the Ottoman Empire where Muslim, Christian, and Jewish populations lived side by side such publications contributed to the availability of religious texts across linguistic and cultural boundaries. This reflects the broader environment of religious coexistence and intellectual exchange in the late Ottoman period.

The presence of foreign publishing organizations and local printing houses also illustrates the growing influence of international missionary and publishing activities during the final decades of the empire, as well as the relative openness of the print culture of the time.

This edition is a hardcover volume, making it both durable and suitable for long-term use, and it stands as a significant historical artifact reflecting religious publishing history in Istanbul during the early 20th century.

Key Features:

• Title: Kitab-ı Mukaddes

• Date: 1912

• Place of Publication: Dersaadet (Istanbul)

• Publisher: American Bible Society

• Printer: Agop Matyosyan Matbaası (Istanbul)

• Language: Ottoman Turkish

• Format: Hardcover Religious Text

• Content: Old Testament (Ahd-i Atik) and New Testament (Ahd-i Cedid)

• Organization: American Bible Society (founded 1816, New York)

• Historical Context: Late Ottoman period religious publishing and missionary activity

• Significance: Complete Bible edition printed in Istanbul for local readership

• Cultural Context: Multilingual and multi-religious Ottoman society

• Collector Appeal: Early 20th-century Ottoman hardcover Bible with Armenian printing house provenance