Mediaeval Arabic printing has not hitherto received the attention which it merits. Now a major new study and corpus has been published:-
Schaefer, Karl. _Enigmatic charms: medieval Arabic block printed amulets in American and European libraries and museums_. Leiden: Brill, 2006 (Handbuch der Orientalistik, 82). xiii, 250pp. 64 col. plates.
ISBNs: 90-04-14789-6 and 978-90-04-14789-8
The core of the work consists of systematic descriptions of the pieces (in Berlin, Cambridge, Dublin, Mainz, Heidelberg, Manchester, Vienna, Strasbourg, New York, Bloomington, Los Angeles, and Princeton), with full transcriptions and translations of the texts. These are followed by colour facsimiles of them. The introductory section contains essays on all that is known of the background to their production, use and subsequent rediscovery.
In my opinion this is a major advance in our knowledge and understanding of these neglected forerunners of the print revolution. As the author points out, much work remains to be done. But meanwhile, there can now be no excuse for scholars and historians, either of printing or of Muslim society, to continue to overlook or to neglect this phenomenon.
Geoffrey Roper
London
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