종이를 통해 본 중세 이슬람 세계와 서구의 지식생태계의 한계

Abstract

The discovery of paper by Arabs led to a major revolution in human civilization. Until then, most documents outside Asia were written on parchments or papyrus rolls—both laborious and expensive processes. Paper was easier to use. The Abbasids lost no time in making use of it to enhance their standing among world civilizations. They established a House of Wisdom, commissioned the translations of foreign works in Greek, Hindu and Persian, wrote down the Hadith and codified Islamic law from what had been a mostly oral tradition. Even before the rise of Islam in the seventh century, paper began its westward move. In northwest China archaeologists discovered five fragmentary letters written in Sogdian, an extinct Central Asian language. Dating somewhere from the fourth to sixth centuries, they are early examples of paper carrying non-Chinese writing. Muslims may first have encountered paper when Arab armies conquered Central Asia in the eighth century. They instantly saw its practicality, and a paper mill was set up in Baghdad. At he same time, paper spread to Persia,Syria and North Africa and finally to Spain in the 10th century. Papermaking virtually ended in many Islamic countries by the 16th century, and printing was only tentatively picked up in the 18th. By that time Europe was publishing the dominant accounts of world history. In them Islamic contributions were all but ignored, even though, without Muslim influence Europe might have remained ignorant of paper until Marco Polo reached China in the 13th century.