The first printed book in Mashhad (Muntakhab al-Qasāyed, 1294 AH.)

Several printing houses were established in Tabriz, Tehrān, and other cities with the arrival of lithography in Iran (1249 AH.). The first lithographic printing house (Chāpkhāne-yi Sangi) was established in the Astān Quds Razavi complex in Mashhad with a delay of about 50 years (1294-1344 AH.) and numerous works with different religious, literary, jurisprudential, and historical themes were published in cooperation with authors, translators, publishing professors, and sponsors. The present study aimed to rely on the descriptive and analytical method to find the first printed book in Mashhad, the active people in printing the first printed book, as well as the physical and content features of the book. The findings based on archival studies indicated that the first printed book in Mashhad using lithography technique was published in Astān Quds Razāvi printing house (the first printing house in Mashhad) in 1294 AH. This book entitled Muntakhab al-Qasāyed contains a collection of poems by 'Ali Rāqem Mashhadi who was one of the calligraphers and poets in Mashhad and then the book was prepared to be published. Meanwhile, the people such as Motamen al-Mulk, Mirzā Rafi, and Ismāil Tājer Heravi participated as the activists and supporters of publishing this work. Among the physical features of this book, there are bookbinding, size, paper, calligraphy, and in-text arrangement (motifs of page and title (Sarloh), tabulation (Jadvalbandi), Lines around the page (Kamand) etc.) which are relatively appropriate features as the first printing experience in Mashhad. In terms of content, although the placement of poems consecutively has no coherent sequence, the three sub-branches of praise, virtue, and citation of the bravery and sufferings of Imāms (AS) and their families, as well as the praise of trustees, rulers and political-military activists in Khorāsān and sometimes other regions and the praise of scholars of literature and culture can be distinguished by reading the text.