In reply to Why Roman typography is the most developed typography between other writing system?:
Müteferrika was a Transylvanian Hungarian Unionist Protestant, who fled to the Ottoman Empire when the Austrian Catholic Habsburg Empire took over. Around that time he converted to Islam, which gave him access to Islamic script expertise, the key for creating acceptable Arabic typography for the Ottoman Empire. Previous printers of Arabic in Europe and (potential) Arabic printers in the Middle East (Jews, Greeks and Armenians in Istanbul and Syriac and and Catholic Christians in Syria-Lebanon) did not have this expertise - which apparently was very difficult to acquire for non-Muslims.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lJsfUQ-qqw
The Ottoman authorities were keenly aware of the strategic importance of what we would now call Information Technology, but they were less then impressed by the graphic atrocities resulting from unfamiliarity with Islamic script practice. According to Orlin Sabev, the Ottoman Authorities had no issue acquiring any technology from unbelievers as long as it served their purpose: the Ottoman armed forces were the first in the world to be fully equipped with fire arms, therefore opposition to printing was not motivated by Islam but by functionality: type without the correct script architecture was useless. The Ottomans were in fact keen on mass producing the Koran, if possible using printing technology, as that could be a powerful tool in spreading Islam (unlike the Catholic authorities, who discouraged the laymen to read the Holy Books). However, although Müteferrika's type was structurally sound - unlike Eurabic and Syrian-Lebanese efforts, which broke many rules of Islamic script architecture - the calligraphic quality was not up to Koranic standards. That is why it was not allowed to be used for religious work. Consequently, Müteferrika printed mainly strategic materials (dictionaries, atlases, grammars, descriptions of foreign lands, etc). Following the closure of Müteferrika's printing shop, work continued with the same or very similarly structured typefaces. According to Uğur Derman, Ottoman Sultan Selim III was so concerned about the low quality of Arabic type, that he ordered the best Ottoman typographer/punch-cutter of his realm - yes! an Armenian - Poghos Araboğlu (http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/g_brief_08.php) to cut punches after the calligraphy of Hattat Deli Osman Efendi (quoting Derman off the top of my head). This produced a much better result, but it was indeed the Armenian Hovhannes/Ohanes Mühendisyan/Mühendisoğlu who created the breakthrough for the acceptance of Arabic type throughout the Ottoman domains (1866).
Summarizing, there was a three-stage development of Arabic typography with the required script architecture, each of them the result of interaction by a typographic using Western technology with direct access to Islamic script expertise:
1. 1730's - Müteferrika, a polymath familiar with typography but most likely not an experienced printer himself, who was able to learn the basics of Arabic calligraphy (from experts) after his conversion to Islam, but he did not succeed in getting the aesthetics right. He only worked on naskh/nesih, which he managed to reproduce structurally correct, but not well shaped.
2. 1790's - Araboğlu, a famous Armenian printer, was ordered to work with Deli Osman. I am still studying the nature of his work, but clearly it was not the breakthrough. It is remarkable that, apart from naskh/nesih, he worked on (nas)ta`liq - one of the key scripts of the period.
3. 1860's - Mühendisoğlu, the dean of Armenian printers and creator of impressive (nas)ta`liq type, closely collaborated with the top calligrapher of his day, Mustafa Izzet Efendi on naskh/nesih. I do not know yet what the nature of their relationship and collaboration was. From the material in my possession it is visible that, though Mühendisoğlu cut all the necessary sorts for a perfect rendering of Islamic script structure, his mastery of the system was imperfect. He frequently uses correct forms in positions where they do not belong. Clearly it took an Islamic upbringing to master this writing system.
None of them ever printed the Koran, but I do have a Lebanese printed Gospel dating from the 1890's in a Mühendisyan (derived?) typeface.
The first typeset Koran was printed in Russia in the end of the 18th century probably by and/or for the Saint Petersburg Tatar Turkic community, with type imported from Germany that had all the typical European defects. The same type was still in use in Kazan (capital of Tatarstan) in the early 1990's. The same typographic style is used by Russian orientalists for Persian texts, notably the first volume of the two part Персидско-Русский Словарь by М.А. Гаффаров. It forms the basis of the persian flavour os simplified naskh, called kitabi.
The first typeset Koran in the Arabic world was printed in Egypt after the collapse of the Ottoman world, in 1924. Apparently, the Ottoman objections against inferior script architecture were dropped in favour of orthographic precision (tajweed), see:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9225177/Cairo_Koran_Orthographic_Rules_FINALoct2...
The typeface used for this Koran conforms dramatically better to Arabic script architecture than what is used by Dutch, German and French printers. It is claimed to be cut after the handwriting of the great Ottoman calligrapher Abdülaziz Efendi. However, while there is a visible relationship between Mühendisoğlu's nask/nesih and Mustafa Izzet Efendi's calligraphy, there is no such match between this typeface and the hand of Aziz. Moreover, e.g., a publication printed in Vienna (Theodor Nöldeke's Zur Grammatic des classischen Arabisch) in 1897 uses a very similar, Mühendisoğlu-inspired typeface - minus the necessary Islamic script architecture: like in Mühendisoğlu's case, all the shapes seem to be there, but, typical for Europeans, the awareness of the system was absent.