The importance of the papyrus plant is acknowledged by the fact that it was one of the symbols of Lower Egypt. Papyrus played a crucial role in the daily life of those times.
The Egyptians used papyrus reeds bundled together for boat making, they wove the papyrus fibers into water resistant ropes and sailcloth, they burned the roots for fuel, and from dried papyrus they made mats, mattresses, baskets, boxes, tables, sandals and utensils. Papyrus was even used as a source of food for the common people.
Egypt's greatest gift to the ancient world, however, was the fabrication of papyrus sheet, the forerunner of our present day paper. Papyrus sheets were the preferred writing materials of the ancient world because they were light, strong, thin, durable, and easy to carry. Thus, papyrus sheets share many of the advantages of modern paper, with which we are familiar.
Because of its importance, papyrus paper making was a state monopoly in Egypt and the method of its production was a closely guarded secret. Many efforts were made in various parts of the Mediterranean to find local substitute for papyrus sheets; thus we find that clay and wax tables, lead sheets and parchment were all used as writing materials by different peoples. However, all these materials proved to be inferior, in one respect or another, to papyrus, which remained the primary writing material in Egypt.
With the onset of the tenth century, the Arabs introduced the pulped paper process, which they had learned from their Chinese prisoners captured in Samarqand. Though the pulped paper was less durable than papyrus, the process was considerably easier and far less expensive than papyrus sheet making.As a result of the imported technology, the Egyptians gradually abandoned the production of papyrus paper and neglected the cultivation of papyrus plantations. A few centuries later papyrus paper had completely disappeared from the Egyptian panorama.
In 1960, nearly a thousand years later Dr. Hassan Ragab (Former Ambassador) set out to rediscover this lost art. Two formidable obstacles had to be overcome:
First, strange as it may seem, though papyrus is typically an Egyptian plant, it had completely vanished from Egypt due to lack of cultivation and heavy silting in the marshes, lakes and ponds where it used to grow. To re-establish the papyrus plant in Egypt, Dr. Ragab journeyed to Sudan to obtain rhizomes (roots) of the Cyprus papyrus. These rhizomes were used to establish his papyrus plantation at Jacob Island at Giza near Cairo, and it considered the largest man made papyrus plantation in the world.
The second major obstacle was rediscovering the process by which papyrus sheets could be produced. It is amazing that the ancient Egyptians, who left records about all aspects of their daily life and thousands of papyri in their tombs, did not leave a single word or drawing about papyrus papermaking. Dr. Ragab spent three years trying to solve this problem before his research was crowned with success, and papyrus sheet making was once again an inherent part of Egyptian culture.
As the papyrus paper making was a state monopoly during the ancient Egyptian time, it was a Ragab’s family monopoly for long time. Dr. Ragab registered papyrus paper making. (Patent No. 02331, October 1977).
Thanks to Dr. Ragab and his family papyrus paper making became one of the most important tourism industries in Egypt. Now the second and third generations of Ragab's family are still working in making papyrus.
