A rhetorically complex “sea of ink” writing figure has been conserved in specificity across a wide expanse of Eurasia for at least 2000 years. … Read the post sea of ink: writing across Eurasia for millennia
The Sackler exhibit, Hand-Held: Gerhard Pulverer’s Japanese Illustrated Books, shows woodblock-printed books (ehon) pervasive in Edo-period Japan. … Read the post illustrated books pervasive in 18th-century Japan
The Fihrist’s coverage of poetry and sects concerns poets, pages of poetry written, and sociological characteristics of sects, not titles of books. … Read the post al-Nadim's Fihrist addresses poetry and sects without book titles
Al-Nadim brought the insights of a court companion and bookseller to cataloging books in his Fihrist. Social relations, not knowledge, sells books. … Read the post al-Nadim's Fihrist provides insights into popular book demand
In the first century of Islam, Abdullah ibn Abbas and Ka’b al-Ahbar confronted a wide variety of Jewish and Christian stories about the origin of writing. … Read the post Abdullah ibn Abbis, Ka'b al-Ahbar, and the origin of writing