Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic world (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Humans have been around for five million years..." (more)
Key Phrases: Central Asia, Middle Ages, North Africa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A very ambitious book of wide intellectual scope and down-to-earth relevance to the humanities - not just to the study of Islamic culture. It is brimful of ideas and fizzes with life." Robert Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300089554
• ISBN-13: 978-0300089554
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #499,191 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vast, Illuminating History, June 10, 2002

By	Smilin' Jack "N/A" (Coahuila, Mexico) - See all my reviews

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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 (though too often they do not). 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.

5.0 out of 5 stars A history of paper using peoples, May 16, 2004

By	Mark Mills (Glen Rose, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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'.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, March 30, 2002

By	happyflower2008 "happyflower2008" (NH United States) - See all my reviews

This book was absolutely great. It tells the history of paper before it reached the Christian world. This is the time before the printing press was invented. Paper had just come from China. This book tells about this time that is sometimes forgotten. This book is the best