Religious Publishing in Abdulhamid II Era: Who Produces the Islamic texts? –II

Abstract: Among Ottoman texts, there have always been religious texts that responded to the needs of both the scholars and the common people. These religious texts were upheld to be the focusing point, even after the Ottoman texts increased in variety due to the printing press becoming widespread and the influence of the Tanzimat reforms. Thus, this paper mainly aims to identify the producers of religious texts rather than to study the texts in the era of Abdulhamid II. This is because, under the political and scientific atmosphere of the era, identities of those who produced the religious knowledge had an effect on a variety of things, among them especially the character of the texts. This paper’s main pursuit is to search for the answer to the question as to who were responsible for producing the religious texts in the era of Abdulhamid II. The answer can be found by looking into the activities of the printing press control mechanism that was obtained at an institutionalized structural level and was effectively applied in that era. In this context, the records of Encümen-i Tefti？ ve Muayene Heyeti (the Office of Sheikh al-Islam), that was working dependently with the Ministry of Education, the supreme authority of printing press control mechanism, have been exami