صورة ذات صلة


Before the invention of printing, important literary and religious works were copied manually; a work done by scribes. In ancient Egypt, scribes were trained to write, by copying excerpts from classical Egyptian works.

Religious texts were buried with the ancient Egyptians; these texts included curses, supplications (prayers), rituals and guidance about the afterlife. When the number of texts became so difficult to register on the coffins, they were inscribed on papyrus and placed inside the coffins. These texts became a major industry; the clerks had to complete thousands of copies. The places where the deceased's name was placed were left blank; until the papyrus was purchased by the writer.

Mistakes were made, if the writer did not understand what he was writing; or if there were more than one writer working simultaneously in copying different passages (of the same text). Copies of papyrus scrolls continued to be carried out in the Greco-Roman era; it was necessary to copy important works to fill the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and to provide scientists with important scientific and philosophical texts.

During the Coptic era, Christians prepared copies of the Gospel, the conduct of saints and the Fathers of the Church, and other texts. The production of manuscripts has grown in Christian churches and monasteries; In several scattered monasteries in northern Egypt, the monks developed the craft of forming and binding the manuscripts, which consisted of sheets of paper bound together in two envelopes.

In the era of the rule of the Muslim rulers, copies of the Holy Quran were acts of righteousness and piety; it was usually done by clerics who were originally memorizers of the Holy Quran. These scribes were trained calligraphers capable of producing many beautiful, identical hand-made copies. The use of the methods and types of font in copying texts of books, religious and non-religious, is a form of fine arts. The books were handwritten, with a high degree of quality and accuracy; soon an industry developed to copy books.

During the Abbasid rule, many calligraphers earned their living by copying books. The books were sometimes copied commercially in copy rooms attached to the public offices, which provided copies of the required works. A number of authors resorted to issuing only certified books to protect their businesses from plagiarism. Established schools to teach fonts, and encouraged translation and copying skills. Egyptian schools were renowned for their distinction during the Fatimid period.

Special government agencies were established that translated the work of Galen, Hepbocrat and other Hellenistic scholars from Greek into Arabic. Arabic became the official language of international scientific knowledge; scientists translated Greek, Latin, Egyptian, Chinese and other Arabic into Arabic. Muslim scholars organized that important scientific and philosophical knowledge; in encyclopedias, they added their visions and discoveries to them.

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