Baghdad

Capital of Iraq, on the Tigris; seat of the Abbasid Caliphate.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Blank Page Revolution	Steven Johnson	backdrop	Abbasid Baghdad, whose learning ran on cheap paper from China.

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The Blank Page Revolution — Steven Johnson (2025)

Source: The Blank Page Revolution · Original · Readwise highlight

I wrote about the astonishing flourishing of intellectual and commercial life in Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, starting around the year 800 CE.

• Role: backdrop
• In the article: Johnson revisits his earlier account of Abbasid Baghdad, with its House of Wisdom (a mix of library, translation bureau and research lab), vast libraries and streets of booksellers, and admits he missed the platform underneath: cheap paper brought west along the Silk Road from China. The city sat at the nexus of the age’s trade routes; the essay then follows paper to Italian merchants.
• Why it matters: Baghdad is the essay’s example of what a new writing medium makes possible, six centuries before Gutenberg.
• Real vs. fictional: The House of Wisdom’s site is lost, so the pin is the city.