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This One Decision Set the Muslim World Back 400 Years?!? The Hidden History of The Printing Press

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Anchor Series #12 | 03/24/26 – How Colonization Shaped Modern Islamic Discourse Part. 3
In this lecture, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi takes a deep dive into one of the most fascinating yet overlooked chapters of Islamic history, the story of the printing press in the Muslim world. Why did the Ottoman Empire fall 400 years behind Europe in adopting this revolutionary technology? Was it really the scholars who banned it, or were there other forces at play? Shaykh Yasir introduces the concept of historiography and shows how the same historical event can be interpreted in completely different ways depending on where you stand. Using the examples of paper, the printing press, the fall of Constantinople, and even animal rights in Islam, he challenges us to move beyond simplistic slogans and think critically about Islam's relationship with modern ideas. A thought provoking lecture that is essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand the rise and fall of the Muslim ummah and what we can learn from it today.

The Rise & Fall of the Muslim Ummah and the Printing Press - Dr. Yasir Qadhi: The Rise & Fall of the Muslim Ummah and th...

0:00-0:40 Highlights
0:41-2:40 Intro
2:41-5:25 What is Historiography
5:26-11:40 Paper & Islamic History
11:41-12:50 Printing Press in Europe
12:51-15:43 Ottoman Ban on Printing Press
15:44-18:11 Decline of the Muslim Ummah
18:12-19:51 Political Ban on Printing Press
19:52-23:37 Conquest of Constantinople(Istanbul)
23:38-30:13 Revisiting the Ban
30:14-31:59 Conservatism and Stagnation
32:00-35:43 The First Printed Magazine
35:44-42:46 Islam & Modern Ideas
42:47-45:03 Conclusion

20 Comments

@abu_six19 5 months ago

One suggestion for admins: whenever he references a previous lecture, please add a link to the description

@mukhammadkarimov8389 5 months ago

Sheikh yasir please continue your series about prophets. You started it and stopped, please continue them also

@HistoryOfRevolutions 5 months ago

Al Manar was one of the greatest islamic newspapers in history. Muslims from morroco all the way to Indonesia had contributed articles to it

@lmessay-jh6xz 5 months ago

Sheikh YQ, when are you going to open up your academy, ISNA, online?? Please.

Many of us from around the world wish we could study under you directly in America, but cannot due to constraints.

The internet provides an alternative so that we may still benefit from yourself, one of the foremost pioneering academic scholars in the English speaking world.

@SolaimanMTanog 1 month ago

Masha Allah what a best historian dear Dr. Yasir !!!

@mnafer697 5 months ago

SubhhanAllah, I was a namesake Muslim. Dearly started loving and practicing my deen by listening to YQ. Alhhadulillah

@lmessay-jh6xz 5 months ago

Dear Yasir Qadhi, please do a series of lectures detailing a 3D top-down view of the various groups in the muslim world, along with their mentalities, historical origins, their individual successes and failures etc.

This will be tremendously beneficial to the muslim world

@mnafer697 5 months ago

Some of his talks I listened to more than 5 times. Never bored. Alhhadulillah

@maksuduzzamankhan1408 1 month ago

excellent! every muslim should watch this lecture

@psychology1psychiatry 5 months ago

Please blame the printing press , not the politicians and immams controlling masses🤣🤣🤣🤣

@farjanaakter4891 1 month ago

Assalamuallikum
Jajakallah Hu khair ❤

@GuessWho-i5o 4 months ago

Europe had no need for paper as it was entirely illiterate during the dark ages except for very few of the clergy. The Muslims discovered paper making from two Chinese POW who they captured during a war, however, the Chinese restricted its use to scroll format only and court documents. It was the Muslims who invented the modern day book by stacking reams and binding it at the side with a hard cover. The Muslims were the first to use paper in sheet format and not scroll. Ottoman Muslims rejected the printing press because they had an Ejaza system where young people would train as an apprentice in handwriting Qurans in a calligraphy script and they thought embracing the printing press would be the end of the Ejaza tradition; so they rejected it on that basis.

@theharryvol5 5 months ago

Amazing as always shiekh, May Allah protect and bless you ameen

@RollTide-ix2rb 5 months ago

Praise be to Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful

@EileenBoyle-t8k 5 months ago

If we want to be technical, we have to give credit to the Chinese for inventing the printing press, or more accurately movable type. (See Joseph Needham and his multi-volume history of Chinese technology).

@kathleenthomson6672 5 months ago

Printing in China originated over a millennium ago during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), far predating Gutenberg, with the earliest known woodblock text, the Diamond Sutra, printed in 868 C.E.. Bi Sheng revolutionized this by inventing movable type using ceramic clay around 1040 C.E.. While woodblock printing remained dominant due to the high volume of Chinese characters, specialized printing techniques spread, influencing East Asia

@dadaszadehuseyn5455 4 months ago (edited)

Jazak Allah xairan Əlhəmdulillah Kəbira Əstəğfürullah Kəsiran

@sAL-1550 5 months ago

Last 5mins extremely important to comprehend

@mglaze13 5 months ago

Great talk. I benefited greatly. Modernity is like a current, if you fight it you'll eventually fall down and drown. If you go with the flow, you'll be saved.

@Peaceandmercytoallhumen 5 months ago

When you defie the first word revealed in the Qur'an which is (Read أقرأ),the result is bad, regardless of you believe in islam or not, only by following it's principles you will go high in this world and in the hereafter.