Author: Jonathan Bloom

It is truly great that Ahmed Al-Adawy has translated my book "The Story of Paper Before the Advent of Printing"—published in 2001—into Arabic.

I am also pleased that Dar Adab published this Arabic translation in such a wonderful and elegant format.

Although this book discusses the pivotal role paper played in the evolution of civilization in the Islamic world and how Muslims transferred the knowledge of paper and its production from East Asia to Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the readers in the studied area hardly know about it.

I hope this Arabic translation becomes widely available to Arabic readers and becomes known to them.

May it inspire a new generation to appreciate the crucial role Islamic societies played in human civilization when they used paper as a means of human communication.

I was truly delighted to see this book—published nearly 20 years ago—has inspired researchers in America and Europe to explore some of the issues it raised.

I eagerly look forward to seeing how readers of this Arabic translation will appreciate the forgotten role of "Paper Before the Advent of Printing."