Paper before print: the history and impact of paper in the Islamic world
Full details
| Authors & editors | |
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
| Year of publication | 2001 |
| Languages | English (main text) |
| Medium | Book |
| Edition | 1 |
| ISBN | 0300089554 |
| Topics | |
| Tags | |
| Scope & content | This book explores how the use of paper in Islamic lands in the Middle Ages and influenced almost every aspect of medieval life including books, mathematics; music, art, architecture and even cooking. It focuses on the spread of paper from the early eighth century when Muslims in West Asia acquired Chinese knowledge of paper and papermaking , to five centuries later when this knowledge was passed to Christians in Spain and Sicily. The book reveals how paper utterly transformed the passing of knowledge and served as a bridge between cultures. The author discusses why Europe was quick to adopt paper from Islamic lands but why Islamic lands were slow to accept printing in return. Contents. Maps: the spread of paper and papermaking; The invention of paper - Clay tablets and papyrus rolls, wooden tablets and parchment codices, bamboo strips and silk cloth, the invention of paper, the diffusion of paper; the introduction of paper to the Islamic lands; The spread of papermaking across the Islamic lands - Iraq, Syria, Iran and Central Asia; Egypt, the Maghrib (North Africa and Spain); Paper and books - the Koran and oral culture; written Arabic, an explosion of books, collections and libraries, a culture of writing; Paper and systems of notation - Mathematics, commerce, cartography, music, genealogy, and battle plans; Paper and the visual arts - before and after the thirteenth century; The transfer of paper and papermaking to Christian Europe - Byzantium, Spain, Italy, and Europe North of the Alps; Paper after print. |
Copies held
Accession no. 230218
- Shelf location: R 500 (20)-BLO
- Donor: Michael Harverson Collection