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Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World Hardcover – November 1, 2001

by Jonathan M. Bloom (Author)

4.6 16 ratings

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Like the printing press, typewriter, and computer, paper has been a crucial agent for the dissemination of information. This engaging book presents an important new chapter in paper’s history: how its use in Islamic lands during the Middle Ages influenced almost every aspect of medieval life. Focusing 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 they transmitted this knowledge to Christians in Spain and Sicily, the book reveals how paper utterly transformed the passing of knowledge and served as a bridge between cultures.

Jonathan Bloom traces the earliest history of paper―how it was invented in China over 2,000 years ago, how it entered the Islamic lands of West Asia and North Africa, and how it spread to northern Europe. He explores the impact of paper on the development of writing, books, mathematics, music, art, architecture, and even cooking. And he discusses why Europe was so quick to adopt paper from the Islamic lands and why the Islamic lands were so slow to accept printing in return. Together the beautifully written text and delightful illustrations (of papermaking techniques and the many uses to which paper was put) give new luster and importance to a now-humble material.

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From Publishers Weekly

Though paper was invented in China around 100-200 B.C., it took nearly a thousand years for Europeans to employ it and Muslims were responsible for introducing them to the technology. Bostoon College professor of Islamic and Asian art Jonathan M. Bloom explores paper's early evolution and use in Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World, and argues that "much in the history of Islamic civilization in the Middle Ages... can be seen in terms of the conflicting claims of memory and written record." Accompanying Bloom's elegant prose are 48 color plates and 53 b&w illustrations of maps, illustrated texts of Islamic poetry, pages of the Koran, and papermaking techniques.

About the Author

Jonathan M. Bloom, Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College, is coauthor of The Art and Architecture of Islam, alsopublished by Yale University Press.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; First Edition (November 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300089554
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300089554
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 1 x 11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,096,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #915 in India History
- #2,391 in Industrial Manufacturing Systems
- #3,713 in Middle East History

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Sharon Kay - Here's Your Writer

This is an exquisite book.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2023

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I like e-books, a lot. But some books are meant to be both read and touched, and this is one of them.

Writing has, of course had a huge impact on human technologies and cultures. But what we write on matters more than you might think. The printing press made it easier is it to share the written words, of course. But this book looks at that interval before the printing press when a new writing surface - paper - made writing record-keeping and authorship more affordable and reliable for entire civilizations. Ink sits on top of papyrus, and can be flaked off and replaced. Vellum requires a lot of work, and there are better uses for leather. Paper, though! An essentially endless supply of uniform, high-quality writing material frequently made from stuff that would otherwise be compost? How does that change a culture? How do cultures change paper?

Appropriately, this book is tactile, with lovely smooth pages, crisp printing, beautiful illustrations, and a binding that feel good in your hands.

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Lucian of Samosata

A Vast, Illuminating History

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2002

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Paper Before Print is a glorious achievement from all perspectives: historically, culturally, and as an impeccable model of how books of this sort should be presented. Jonathan Bloom's text is revealing and intellectually stimulating without alienating the average reader. His premise, though not a popular one -- that the Middle East played a far more important role in refining and introducing paper to the West than is usually acknowledged -- carefully unfolds with unassailable research and arguments. The illustrations, mostly early Islamic texts (700s-1300s), are tastefully selected and compliment the text perfectly. The typography, layout, and presentation are superb. Anyone interested in history, art, and printing will profit from having this book on their shelves.

13 people found this helpful

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Mark Mills

A history of paper using peoples

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2004

Paper Before Print is very iconoclastic. It suggests the European Renaissance is related to declines in a commodity cost (writing material), rather than the birth of now-familiar geniuses and renewed interest in ancient classics. While the scope of the book outlines a complete history of 'cellulose pulp using people' (paper users), the central theme addresses the cultural transmission of technology. Specifically, it describes the transmission of paper making skills from China to Europe via the Muslim Caliphates. Most of the narrative covers the period between 700 and 1200 AD, but ancient and modern detours intrude regularly. This is entirely appropriate, since most readers will have a difficult time giving credence to commodity prices playing any role in European intellectual development. Bloom seems to have decided to zig-zag back and forth across 3 thousand years of history, hoping to keep the 'big picture' in view.
The book makes an excellent argument for 'cultural' issues dictating technological change. For example, paper emerged in China as a 'wrapping' material. It wasn't until Buddhist influences from India made 'writing' important that it's utility as 'voice recording substrate' was discovered. In other words, until the economic demands for precise and voluminous reproduction of Buddha's voice emerged, 'paper' was only used to bundle things together. The combination of a cultural need (reproducing Buddha's voice) blended with a Chinese skill (making a cheap membrane that happened to soak up ink), what we know as the 'writing' industry never got off the ground. Of real interest is the fact that India ignored the Chinese innovation for 2000 years. Paper was not used frequently there until Muslim culture was imposed on it 2000 years later.
Since Bloom's perspective relies on continually falling paper prices for explaining cultural revolutions, the reader is presented with a sound foundation in the mechanics of paper production. It is advances in these mechanical arts that drives down commodity prices. Equally important are the mechanics of educating 'paper' users and stabilizing an infrastructure for the system's continued existence. In this light, most of Bloom's time is spent describing educational and institutional practices of Muslim bureaucracy. It seems this was a unique interaction between Mediterranean 'mystery writing' (Greek logic plus Jewish/Christian/Muslim truths) and the Chinese (via silk road) paper bureaucracy. Bloom makes it clear that Muslim bureaucracy, and the paper using skills it relied upon, were invented by interaction of Middle East and China. The new technology was not a revolutionary technology discovered when Muslims captured Chinese paper-makers during 8th century military exploits, instead the bureaucratic needs of Muslim authorities saw in 'silk road cellulose membranes' an means to 'better government' during a time when anachronism of Roman government bureaucracy made change (better government) a possibility.
With the expansion of Muslim bureaucracy around the southern half of the Mediterranean basin during the 8th and 9th centuries, paper production skills became available to Germanic peoples of Europe. Unlike the Byzantines to the east, they were less attached to high priced writing membranes such as papyrus and vellum. They showed far less resistance to changing manufacturing and institutional practices. A good example of this is the 11th century 'corporate charter' revolution in Spain. This bureaucratic revolution relied upon cheap paper for incorporating numerous Spanish towns into a cohesive military defense force against Muslims who brought the paper in the first place. At the same time in Byzantium, the institutionalization of vellum record keeping practices retarded development of efficient government practices and an inability to address military threats from the Muslim east.
Bloom goes on to suggest that 3-D perspective as a communication skill emerged as a cultural force only when paper prices and reproduction costs fell to levels where 'mass readership' became possible. Bloom locates this emerging phenomena in the 10th century Caliphates, where mass readership of the Koran was a cultural priority. Bloom goes on to suggest that the Germanic peoples of Europe, who had no institutional focus on reproducing Koran-based beliefs, transmuted the phenomena of 'mass communication' into what we now know as the 'modern world'.

21 people found this helpful

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mirasreviews

Paper, Even without Print, as a Transformative Force in the Medieval Islamic World.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2010

Jonathan M. Bloom is a historian of Islamic and Asian art who ventures a little bit afield of his usual subject in "Paper before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World". Bloom feels that the impact of paper in the Islamic world has been unjustly neglected by scholars, because the Muslim world was late to adopt the printing press. Unlike the Chinese, who invented paper and from whom papermaking came down to Muslim conquerors in the 8th century, or the Europeans, who were fairly quick to invent the printing press after paper was introduced to Northern Europe, the Islamic world did not adopt the printing press until the 18th century, a full millennium after it embraced paper. But Bloom proposes that paper, itself, was a catalyst to many intellectual and artistic developments in the Islamic world and, as such, is worthy of attention.

"Paper before Print" follows the Islamic world's evolving relationship with paper: the invention of paper in China by 2nd century BC, its contact with Islam in the 8th century, the 2 centuries it took to spread throughout the Islamic empire, its impact on book production, on mathematics, commerce, cartography, and its eventual use for preparatory sketches for artwork, allowing artists to transfer designs between media. Finally, Islamic expertise in papermaking is transferred to Europe through Moorish Spain in the 12th century and to Northern Europe in the 14th century. Without it, Gutenberg's printing press would not have made such a revolution in the 15th century. Meanwhile, the arts, science, and literacy of the Islamic world were transformed. Bloom touches on many aspects of Islamic society that were affected by paper. You can find more detail on these topics elsewhere, but Bloom brings them all together here to illustrate paper's impact.

And Bloom doesn't just tell us how the availability of this relatively inexpensive writing material transformed Islamic bureaucracy, literature, science, and, eventually, art. He shows us. Beginning with the origins of paper in China, through the height of the Islamic empire, until the 16th century, by which time papermaking had all but died out in the Islamic world, "Paper before Print" shows us examples of paper arts in 50 color plates and 53 black-and-white illustrations. I have to admit that the beauty of this book scores extra points with me. The cover is a reproduction of a 1478 work by a Persian calligrapher on Chinese light blue paper that is flecked and painted with gold. It's lovely. Inside, the text is printed on slick white paper with illustrations and ample margins, which the author uses for tangential information.

7 people found this helpful

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