An Early Media Transition in the Middle East

A Tale of Stationers, Chancery Clerks and Scholars

Bibliographic Data

ID12955687
AuthorsRebecca Sauer (Heidelberg University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume15
Issue1-2
Pages13-33
Publication date2022-06-15
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMiddle East Journal of Culture and Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1873-9857 • E-ISSN: 1873-9865
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/18739865-01501001
OpenAlexW4284990716
LanguageEN
References cited13

More than 1,000 years prior to the ‘print revolution’, a massive media transformation took place in the Middle East, namely, the introduction of paper during the eighth century. Accompanied by several further technological changes, the new writing surface—purportedly brought to Central Asia by Chinese prisoners of war—led to an increasing availability of written sources, an ‘explosion of books’. In this paper, I examine the details of this early media transformation, survey how literary and historical sources discussed this development and give insight into the developments it entailed in just a few centuries. The main part of the paper deals with sources from the Mamluk period (1250–1517) that witnessed a thorough literarization of all parts of communal and personal life

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · China · East Asia · Literature · Mamluk · Media studies · Middle East · Period (music · Sociology · Transition (genetics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

Tools

Open DOI