Dr Geoffrey Roper

His studies of printing and book history have convinced him both of the importance of good Arabic book design and of the need for separate typographical norms for Arabic, rather than endless imitations of traditional calligraphy.

Relevant publications

Arabic printing: its history and significance. Ur, 1982 i, pp.23-30.

Arabic incunabula. L'Arabisant, 21 (1982), pp.18-28.

Arabic printing and publishing in England before 1820. British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin, 12 (1985), pp.12-32.

The export of Arabic books from Europe to the Middle East in the 18th century. BRISMES: British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (in association with AFEMAM): Proceedings of the 1989 International Conference on Europe and the Middle East ... Durham ... 1989. Oxford 1989, pp.226-233.

National awareness, civic rights and the rôle of the printing press in the 19th century: the careers and opinions of Fāris al-Shidyāq, his colleagues and patrons. Democracy in the Middle East: proceedings of the annual conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies ... 1992. St Andrews 1992, pp.180-188.

Fāris al-Shidyāq and the transition from scribal to print culture in the Middle East. The book in the Islamic world: the written word and communicationin the Middle East. Ed. G.N.Atiyeh. Albany (USA) 1995, pp.283-292.

Islamic art. III,8: Printing. The Dictionary of Art. [Vol.] 16. London & New York 1996, pp.359-363.

Turkish printing and publishing in Malta in the 1830s. (Imprimerie et publications turques à Malte dans les années 1830.) Turcica, 29 (1997) pp.413-421.

Printing and publishing. Encyclopedia of Arabic literature. Ed. J.S.Meisami & P.Starkey. London 1998, pp.613-615.

Persian printing and publishing in England in the 17th century. Iran and Iranian studies:
essays in honor of Iraj Afshar. Ed. Kambiz Eslami. Princeton 1998, pp.316-328.

The beginnings of Arabic printing by the ABCFM, 1822-1841. Harvard Library Bulletin, N.S.9 i / 1998 (1999), pp.50-68.

(with E.Hanebutt-Benz & D.Glaß, in collaboration with T.Smets): Middle Eastern languages and the print revolution: a cross-cultural encounter = Sprachen des Nahen Ostens und die Druckrevolution: eine interkulturelle Begegnung / Gutenberg Museum Mainz, Internationale Gutenberg-Gesellschaft. Westhofen 2002.

(with J.Tait): Coptic typography: a brief sketch = Koptische Typographie: eine kurze Skizze. Middle Eastern languages and the print revolution: a cross-cultural encounter = Sprachen des Nahen Ostens und die Druckrevolution: eine interkulturelle Begegnung. Ed. E.Hanebutt-Benz, D.Glaß, G.Roper / Gutenberg Museum Mainz, Internationale Gutenberg-Gesellschaft. Westhofen: Skulima, 2002, pp.117-121.

Early Arabic printing in Europe = Arabische Frühdruck in Europa, ibid, pp.129-150.

(with D.Glaß): Arabische Buchdruck in der arabischen Welt = The printing of Arabic books in the Arab world, ibid, pp.177-205.

فارس الشدياق والانتقالة من ثقافة النسخ إلى ثقافة الطباعة في الشرق الاوسطּ الكتاب في العالم الإسلامي: الكلمة المكتوبة كوسيلة للاتصال في منطقة الشرق الأوسطּ تحرير: جورج عطيةּ
المجلس الوطني للثقافة والفنون والآداب، ٢٠٠٣ (عالم المعرفة، ۲٩۷)، : الكويت .جيﻮﻟﺤﻟﺍ ﺭﺎﺗﺴﻟﺍﺩﺑﻋ ﺔﻣﺟﺭﺗ
189-209 صּ
Arabic tr. of “Fāris al-Shidyāq and the transition from scribal to print culture in the Middle East", 1995.

Arabic books printed in Malta 1826-42: some physical characteristics. History of printing and publishing in the languages and countries of the Middle East, ed. Philip Sadgrove. Oxford: Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester, 2004 (2005) (Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement 15), pp.111-129

Al-Jawā'ib Press and the edition and transmission of Arabic manuscript texts in the 19th century. Theoretical approaches to the transmission of Oriental manuscripts: proceedings of a symposium held in Istanbul, March 28-30, 2001, ed. Judith Pfeiffer, Manfred Kropp. Beirut: Orient-Institut; Würzburg: Ergon-Verlag, in Kommission, 2007 (Beiruter Texte und Studien, 111), pp.237-247

The printing press and change in the Arab world. Agent of change: print culture studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. Edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F. Shevlin. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007.