It took place, however, over a longer period, and was a more
difficult and complex process. The first printing in Arabic was
done about 500 years before Gutenberg, but Arabic printed
books did not fully displace manuscripts until after the middle of the 19th century. Meanwhile, Hebrew book printing was quickly adopted in Europe and soon spread to Jewish communities in the Middle East; Armenians likewise devoted much effort to producing books in their language from the early 16th century onward, both in Europe and the Middle East.

The other main Christian languages of the area, Syriac and
Coptic, were also printed in early modern Europe and later
by local presses. The first books to be printed by Muslims,
in the 18th century, were in Ottoman Turkish. Iranians started printing in Persian in the early 19th century, and soon started to use lithography instead of typography to reproduce handwritten texts: this technique was also used for some Arabic and Turkish publications. In all Middle Eastern languages, newspapers and periodicals, as well as books, began to spread in the 19th century, and played an important part in the Middle Eastern print revolution.

The history of printing in all these languages is covered in some detail in the contributions to this volume, which are as follows:

Hanebutt-Benz, E.: The beginnings of letterpress printing in the West
Hanebutt-Benz, E.: Type specimens of Oriental scripts from
European type foundries
Tamari, I. J.: Notes on the printing in Hebrew typefaces from the 15th to 19th centuries
Pehlivanian, M.: Mesrop's heirs: the early Armenian book printers
Coakley, J. F.: Printing in Syriac, 1539-1985
Roper, G. & Tait, J.: Coptic typography: a brief sketch
Schaefer, K.: Arabic printing before Gutenberg - blockprinted Arabic amulets
Roper, G.: Early Arabic printing in Europe
Bobzin, H.: From Venice to Cairo: on the history of Arabic editions of the Koran (16th - early 20th century)
Glass, D. & Roper, G.: The printing of Arabic books in the Arab world
Glass, D.: Arabic newspapers and periodicals in the Arab
world (1828-1928)
Gabeyan, H.: Modern developments in Arabic typesetting - a
boom and a boon
Neumann, C. K.: Book and newspaper printing in Turkish,
18th-20th century
Marzolph, U.: Early printing history in Iran (1817 - ca.1900)
Pistor-Hatam, A.: Beginnings of the Persian language press

Each of these is amply illustrated. They are followed by full-page plates (many in colour) depicting the 123 exhibits, which comprise the following:
- 5 mediaeval Arabic block-prints (one also containing Coptic)
- 33 Arabic books & newspaper, 1505-1941
- 13 Armenian printed books & newspaper, 1512-1852
- 5 Coptic books, 1630-1901
- 14 Hebrew printed texts, 1492-1577, & journal and reproduction of mediaeval Hebrew block-print from Egypt
- 11 Persian books & newspaper, 1824-1937
- 6 Syriac books & periodical, 1555-1961
- 15 Turkish books & newspaper, 1729-1995
- 2 European incunables containing woodcut Arabic, Syriac,
Coptic & Hebrew
- a 16th-century panorama of Cairo with title in 9 languages
- 12 European type-specimens including M.E. founts, 1525-1818
- 6 sets of types, punches & matrices for Greek, Hebrew & Syriac, Antwerp 1523-69

These illustrations reveal not only the intricacies of printing in
Middle Eastern scripts, but also that the best of such printed books, like their European-language counterparts, and like Middle Eastern manuscripts, deserve attention and appreciation as objects of beauty and works of art.

The exhibits are all then given detailed descriptions in the catalogue, followed by bibliographies and indexes of places of printing.