Printing Industry Day, celebrated in Iran on September 2.

This day is the perfect opportunity to remember the profound historical connection between the Persian people and the world of books. In the past of Islamic Iran, the creation of a book was not a simple reproduction of texts, but a true expression of art. Refined calligraphy, rich polychrome illuminations, and precious leather bindings finely decorated with gold combined to create timeless masterpieces. To preserve this invaluable scientific, poetic, and religious heritage, impressive collections have arisen over the centuries: Iran, a historic crossroads of knowledge, still preserves millions of rare manuscripts in cultural centers of excellence, such as the famous Astan Quds Razavi Library in Mashhad, the great libraries of Qom, and the National Library in Tehran.

The origins of this visceral love of culture are deeply rooted in ancient times. While in early medieval Europe, copying texts was largely confined to monastic scriptoria with extremely limited print runs, in the Islamic world a dynamic, publicly accessible publishing market was already flourishing. As early as the 9th century, entire neighborhoods bustling with workshops brimming with manuscripts sprang up in major cities. These spaces were staffed by skilled artisans who produced the paper, copied the texts, and traded them, allowing scholars and enthusiasts from all walks of life to purchase works of philosophy, science, and literature at affordable prices. This extraordinary diffusion of knowledge was largely catalyzed by the encounter with Chinese civilization: the learning of papermaking techniques led to the opening of numerous paper mills, making book production rapid and sustainable.

Bookmaking thus transformed into a vast cultural industry that connected the flourishing cities of Central Asia, such as Herat and Bukhara, to the Islamic Spain of al-Andalus. Special royal ateliers were established in the courts of Persian rulers, where the most illustrious calligraphers and miniaturists of the time collaborated to create volumes of unsurpassed beauty. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Islamic world, the royal library of Cordoba housed hundreds of thousands of volumes, at a time when literacy elsewhere was the privilege of very few. Through this immense network of production and exchange, the Islamic world not only saved ancient sciences from oblivion, but also spread knowledge on a global scale, forever shaping the history of human culture.