A Paper Trail Across the Lands of Islam

Paper, perhaps the most common manufactured item in everyday use, was invented in China over 2,000 years ago. One thousand years later, Muslims learned of it after they conquered Central Asia in the early eighth century. They quickly carried it and the techniques of manufacturing it across Eurasia and Northern Africa to the shores of the Atlantic. There, some 1500 years after its invention, Europeans started using and manufacturing it themselves. This talk presents the largely-unknown history of paper across the lands of Islam, revealing how—long before the invention of printing—this remarkable medium transformed Islamic societies in many ways.

 

Speakers

• Jonathan Bloom, Professor Emeritus, Department of Art, Art History & Film, Boston College