Shoes, Writing: Unspeaking Writing in the Material Culture of Pre-Islamic Arabia and Early Islam

Abstract

The pre-Islamic Arabic ode (qaṣīda) typically opens with a description of abandoned Bedouin camps. This image is often paired with that of writing traces which are illegible and indistinguishable from camp remains or animal droppings, an unspeaking writing which is visually and semantically indistinguishable from its material support. Treating writing as a “cultural technique,” this article investigates writing in material culture in Arabia from the sixth to the eighth century CE to show that practices such as writing on shoes reflect a deliberate prioritization of the materiality of writing over its semantic content. Taking a media history approach allows us to see a preference for leather, recycled materials, and domestic artifacts as writing supports. This helps us understand why writing in these practices is not purely linguistic, abstract text but is associated with its visual effects, materials, and the physical activity of creating it rather than with reading it.