Müteferrika, İbrahim

Of Hungarian origin, İbrahim Müteferrika was born in Koloszvar, Transylvania (1674 or before), and was educated as a priest either in a Calvinist or a Unitarian college in his native city. During the Imre Tököly rebellion (1692-93) he was made a prisoner of the Ottomans and under obscure circumstances turned to Islam. He obtained a solid training in Muslim theology and oriental languages and served as an interpreter and emissary, as well as in various military posts during the wars of the late 1730s. He is mostly known as the founder and director of the first Ottoman Turkish printing house in 1727. He died in 1745.