During the 1840s and 1850s, lithographic presses in North India published over seven hundred titles in Persian, many of which were reprinted several times over subsequent years. These industries succeeded in drawing newly literate as well as established readerships, who appeared to be interested in a wide range of textual genres and forms. Despite recent interest in nineteenth-century Indian printing industries and their consumers, attention has been primarily focused on the production and reception of vernacular literatures. This article looks at the people, processes, and texts which constituted the Persian lithographic industry in mid-nineteenth century North India, focusing in particular on the role played by publishers in carving out identities as transmitters of texts. It argues that even as publishers sought to reach new readers and wider markets, they did so by drawing these groups into the existing ethos and hierarchies governing Persianate knowledge, rather than expressing a break from it.

中文翻译：

---

维持波斯平版书籍的权威：北印度的出版商和印刷，c。1835–57 年

在 1840 和 1850 年代，北印度的平版印刷机用波斯语出版了 700 多本书，其中许多书在随后的几年中多次重印。这些行业成功地吸引了新的识字者和已建立的读者群，他们似乎对广泛的文本体裁和形式感兴趣。尽管最近对 19 世纪印度印刷业及其消费者产生了兴趣，但注意力主要集中在白话文学的生产和接受上。本文着眼于构成 19 世纪中叶北印度波斯平版印刷行业的人员、过程和文本，特别关注出版商在塑造身份作为文本传播者方面所发挥的作用。