The Bulaq Press stands as a cornerstone in the history of printing in the world and the intellectual development of Egypt and the broader Arab world. Established in 1820 as Egypt’s first official printing press, it played a pivotal role in the emergence of modern education and significantly influenced the evolution of Arabic typography and publication practices in Egypt and the Middle East. Prior to the nineteenth century, the Arab world was deeply rooted in a manuscript culture (Glass, 2002), where scribes carefully transcribed texts by hand. The advent of the printing press marked a transformative shift, and Egypt—owing to its strategic position—emerged as a leader in this transition.

This paper explores the role of the Bulaq Press in fostering a culture of scholarship and disseminating knowledge in Egypt and the Middle East during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The press published rare Arabic heritage knowledge as well as texts in Persian and Turkish. Notably, it produced numerous translations by the prominent Egyptian intellectual Rifāʿa Al-Tahtawi (1801–1873) in the 1840s.

In addition, the study highlights the social and cultural dynamics that shaped the press’s intellectual output, including the rise of private schools and the proliferation of public and private periodicals such as Al-Waqa’i‘al-Misriyya and Wady al-Nil.

In the meantime, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina has played a key role in preserving and promoting its legacy. In 2005, it published a comprehensive book on the Bulaq Press, which received the Egyptian State Incentive Award in Social Sciences. Furthermore, the Bulaq Press Museum at the Library is a founding member of the International Association of Printing Museums (IAPM), established in Cheongju, South Korea, in 2018.