Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World (review)

The worldwide consumption of paper products probably exceeds 290 million tons annually, and the demand for paper products is increasing on a daily basis. Indeed, every aspect of modern life is somehow entwined with the use of paper. This book is a comprehensive and analytical view of everything involving paper, including the origins of papermaking and its spread from China to the rest of Afro-Eurasia. The main emphasis, however, is the effect of paper on the medieval Islamic world.

After the introduction, the book begins with a chapter entitled "Invention of Paper," which describes the early material used for writing (clay tablets, papyrus, parchment, bamboo strips, and silk cloth) and discusses the invention of paper in China and its diffusion eastward to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam and westward over the Silk Road to Islamic lands and, later, India. Chapter two, "The Spread of Papermaking Across the Islamic Lands," follows the phenomenon first and foremost to Baghdad (Iraq), the political, economic, cultural, and intellectual center of the Abbasid dynasty, where the first paper mill was established in 794/95. Papermaking then spread to Syria, Persia, Central Asia, Egypt, and North Africa. As the Abbasids' bureaucracy became more complex with the creation of different departments (offices), the traditional recordkeeping on papyrus and parchment could not accommodate the influx of information. It was more economical, in every sense, to use paper.

The spread of the papermaking industry inaugurated a new age of florescence in Islamic lands. The author exquisitely details this era in three successive chapters, "Paper and Books," "Paper and Systems of Notation," and "Paper and the Visual Arts." The availability of different styles and sizes of paper encouraged the medieval Muslim scholars and writers to explore different fields (theology, visual art, literature, mathematics, sciences, philosophy, history, geography, medicine, pharmacology, astronomy, and music). The last two chapters of this book, "Transfer to Christian Europe" and "Paper After Print," show how the Muslim control of Spain beginning in the eighth century and of Sicily in the ninth century brought paper and the knowledge of papermaking to the rest of Western Europe, thereby contributing heavily to European progress.

Bloom has delved into diverse sources in order to bring this difficult topic into publication. His historical research demonstrates the importance of the Silk Roads during the medieval period and the interconnectedness of the Afro-Eurasian zone of communication. Moreover, he intricately demonstrates the role that paper played in the artistic, intellectual, and social world of Islam. The book is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of samples of parchment, papyrus, and paper. The technical information makes the otherwise abstruse production of papyrus, parchment, felt, paper, and molds easier for a non-expert to understand.