Islamic Wiraqah 'Stationery' During the Early Middle Ages (Book Making, Muslim Book Producing).

Abstract

In the Near East the first five centuries after the Hijra (622-1106 A.D.) were dominated by the spread of Islam and the growth of Muslim states, and both developments were dependent on writing materials. This dissertation traces the history of writing materials and related crafts, craftsmen, and procedures during that period. From rough beginnings in the time of Muhammad (PBUH) through an efflorescence in the first century of ('c)Abbasid rule, the stationer's trade touched on a wide variety of technological developments and was involved in a similarly wide range of intellectual and administrative changes. The craft of wiraqah, 'stationery' in the broadest sense, was an institution which came to exercise significant political, social, and economic influence. Its initial growth, however, was due to the central role of the Qur'an in Islam, and it continued to be closely tied to spiritual and intellectual life in the prosperous ('c)Abbasid capital of Baghdad. The dissertation treats both the religious-intellectual and administrative aspects of the growing use of paper; it also touches on the writing materials used among the Arabs before the advent of paper, and the complex route by which that invention came from China via Samarq and into the world of Islam. Paper-manufacturing centers are surveyed, and the trade in stationery, the traders, and their trading places are treated, along with auxiliary crafts, notably copying and bookbinding. The processes of writing books and selling them are also explored, with attention to the public character of much composition in the medieval period. The dissertation draws largely on Arabic annalistic and belletristic sources, notably Ibn al-Nad(')im and Yaqut, modern papyrological, bibliographical, and codicological studies, though they are few in number, are also drawn on to supplement the literary sources.