Throughout history, mankind has
committed its
greatest thoughts to writing. The power
of the
written word is vast: it allows ideas,
emotions,
even passions, to transcend time, to
pass
unaltered from one person to another,
from one
generation to the next. Human society
itself is
erected on a solid foundation of
documents:
edicts, declarations, and holy books.
This rare
manuscript dates from the early
flowering of
Islam, a religion which, from its
beginning, has
been guided by the written word. The
reed
paper, papyrus, was made for thousands
of
years in Egypt, a land incorporated
early into the
Islamic empire. To hold this manuscript
today, to
decipher its message, is to communicate
directly
with a vanished world.
- (PF.0354)
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