When the Presbyterian American mission to Syria began publishing secular and ecclesiastic Arabic books at its Beirut press in 1834 as part of its conversion protocols, it also took to producing an often large number of less-elaborately designed and written ephemeral works. These Arabic pamphlets—which varied in content, design, format, print quality, and edition numbers—ranged from detailed medicinal guides for treating Cholera, ‘Ilaj mufid l-il-hawa’ al-asfar al-mubid (1837), to a widely-distributed translation of the passion of Christ, Qissat alam sayyidina yasu‘ al-masih (1841). By midcentury, Arab-Syrian intellectuals, some of whom were within the mission’s employ such as Mikha’il Mishaqa and Butrus al-Bustani, became more involved in the activities of the American press in particular and an emergent urban printing industry in general. Consequently, these pamphlets took on a decidedly more controversial political, literary, and religious tone, encompassing increasingly popular notions of an Ottoman/Arab identity and religious pluralism, which prefaced the late nineteenth-century Arab nahda. This paper explores the complex nature of these frequently overlooked ephemeral productions by considering the ways in which their aesthetic dimensions and textual significance paralleled widespread economical and socio-political changes, many of which were negotiated within a political public sphere. At the same time, by considering both the works of missionaries and those of local literary and politically motivated agents, this study also emphasizes the diverse roles and meanings of this ephemeral medium as a meeting point between two frequently divergent worldviews. In doing so, it demonstrates how multivalent perspectives during this period paralleled, and were negotiated within, the pages of these easily produced, disposable pamphlets, which subsisted in a religious and cultural context that placed much value on the written word and the effort involved in book production. As such, these pamphlets serve as integral representations of changing forms and functions of print culture at a time when local book production was transitioning from traditional scribal methods to modern letterpress technologies. By closely examining these booklets, particularly their seemingly unassuming nature, this paper not only highlights their ability to effectively mobilize religious, political, and intellectual ideas, but also emphasizes their significance as modes for visual innovation and experimentation during the development of Arabic printing in Ottoman Syria.