Papyrus - worshiped, forgotten, rediscovered

This name everybody knows from schooltime. Papyrus, the paper of the ancient Egyptians. But papyrus then was more than only material for a sheet of paper on which it was easy to write and which was easy to transport. The umbel plant with the triangel stalk which grew everywhere in the swampy banks of the Nile in Lower Egypt was hallowed.The useful plant grew up to a height of four metres. The roots were used as fuel, the bast around the pulp was raw material for baskets, ropes, cords, belts, sandals, mats, ropes for sailing boats and much more. Dried stalks were the basic material with which the ancient Egyptians built their boats. From the blossoms they bound girlands as decoration for the shrines of their gods. The soft part of the stalk which grew in the water was a welcomed part of the daily food.

For the production of the first so called paper of the world only the pulp was used. It was the raw material for the papyrus sheets on which people could write and that became an important part of the Egyptian economic. Also other nations in the areas of the Mediterranean and the Middle East were interested in this. Papyrus became an export product. So the production was a state secret. Nowhere in any tomb or temple you will find any detailed information about the production of the papyrus which was produced first in sheets. Lateron these sheets were sticked togehter to long rolls. Finally we find up to 40 metres long papyri like the papyrus Harris which discribes the heroic deeds of Remeses II.

But papyrus is a plant of the swamp which needs a lot of water. So when the Arabs came to Egypt and brought with them the greaseproof paper, later startet to drain the swamps the papyrus plant died out in Egypt. And with it the secret to produce the sheets for writing. Till Dr. Hassan Ragab showed up. The man who brought papyrus back to Egypt. He built a forgotten tradition up to a new industry.

When we met him the last time he was sitting behind the desk on his houseboat. Even he was 90 years old, his eyes were still glimmering, his mind still filled up with ideas and his thinking always critical. And of course he was proud of his life’s work. Dr. Hassan Ragab - a man who is raring to go.

On 11th of January 2004 he died in the age of 92 after a long and not easy life with a lot of hard struggles. Conflicts with the government, financial crisis were part of his life. But he granted two dreams of his life. To produce and to deal with the paintings on papyrus. So Dr. Hassan Ragab became the founder of a new thriving business in the modern Egypt. Nowadays nearly every tourist will buy at least one sheet of painted papyrus in one of the countless shops or from the street vendors all over the country. However, in 1965 when he started his research work this was unthinkable. Because since more then 1000 years there was no more papyrus in Egypt. And the ancient knowledge of producing papyrus was forgotten. A piece of tradition seemed to be lost.

"There was no future for my job with the government," told the man who startet as an electrical engineer and finished his diplomatic career in 1968. So he moved to a career made by papyrus. Background: In 1956 he became the first ambassador for Egypt in China. "In this time we got an invitation from nice people to visit a little villlage," Dr. Hassan told us. There was a family producing paper in a very traditional way. For sure paper was invented in China. "The family was living from this work," he added. And in Dr. Ragab’s mind the idea was born to produce the traditional paper of Egypt - that means papyrus - again. In the following years he never lost this idea.

In the beginning of the sixties the idea went near to reality. He went back to Cairo and thought of bamboo as a raw material. "But this was too expensive," he remembered. "Therefore I started to think about the papyrus plant. But I found two problems. There were no plants in Egypt anymore. And there is no discription how to make the sheets," said Dr. Hassan. In this moment the most people would have given up. But not Dr. Hassan Ragab who was raring to go. First he tried to grow papyrus from seed but without success. Then he imported some plants from Sudan. Success! "One year later I had my first own plants," he said. This was the beginning of the rediscovery of the papyrus.

But how the ancient Egyptians produced the famous writing paper from this plant? Dr. Hassan became a scientist. Because the ancient Egyptians protected this secret like a treasure. Why? In ancient times for thousands of years papyrus was the only writing paper in the region. So it became an economic factor for Egypt through export. The only but very vague indication he found in the studies of the Roman historian Plinius the Older. But this discription was so inaccurate that it didn’t help Dr. Hassan in any way.

So he started to collect some information from experts, began his own experiments. After he made his first sheets of papyrus he compared this to the quality of the ancient ones. So step by step he found the way to produce sheets in the same quality, the same structure as it was done some thousands years ago. "This was a work for three years. And nearly all my money was gone," Dr. Hassan mentioned not without pride. He found his way alone, built up his own little factory, looked for artists and students of the faculty of fine arts to do the paintings on the papyrus in high quality. Then he sold the sheets but only with very little profit.

Dr. Hassan was remembering the first hard days: "For nobody it was believable that it was really original handmade papyrus. Therefore of course the sheets were expensive and we had only a few customers." But at the end with his idea he was succesful. Ragab extended his factory, rented a part of the Jacob Island in the southern part of Cairo to grow papyrus there, he opened branches of his institute in different Egytian towns and the United States of America. All over the world Dr. Hassan was named as the expert for papyrus. He wrote some scientific books, was honoured, received several awards. Dr. Hassan Ragab - the man who brought an ancient industry in Egypt back to life. He teached young people to work in the footsteps of the ancient craftsmen. Today you will find many imitators, but only a few reach his level of quality.

One who follows strictly the way of Dr. Ragab is Sayed Farag, owner of the "Nefertari Papyrus Institute" on The West Bank of Luxor. He is angry with the street vendors and their cheap and factory made mass products: "They scare the customers." Fact is: Papyri of high quality - the material and the handmade painting of individual artists - of course costs a little bit more. Why? Sayed Farag explains: "The cultivation of papyrus in Egypt is limited by the government, you need a licence, because this plant daily needs about 30 liters of water. And also to sell papyrus of high quality you need a licence." So this is not really an article for street vendors. The pictures they sell are simple prints done by a machine. But good papyri they are unique specimen, each picture is a little bit different to the other.

How can we know if a sheet is real good papyrus? Sayed Farag explains: "Bend a sheet very sharp, it will not break. And tip with one moistened finger a little bit the colour of the painting but please in an angel. If you find some colour on your finger you nearly can be sure that this papyrus is handmade."

Until now there was only the soft yellow papyrus on the market. But Sayed Farag, who grows the papyrus on his own farm in the delta, offers now also dark brown sheets with paintings. To reach this colour the pulp before it comes for the third time to water is hammered by stone. Then it has to stay for seven days in hot water. So the papyrus gets the charming dark colour as a background for effective paintings sometimes in a very new style of the artists.Mohamed Farag, the brother of Sayed, explains: "These paintings are running very well in our shop." This shows that Dr. Hassan Ragab brought an old tradition back to life but also his successors have new ideas - or bring other old ones back to life? Have a look also to the site of the "Nefertari Papyrus Institute" which shows you a selection of the paintings. There you also can order online.

How papyrus is made

It sounds so simpel. To produce a sheet of papyrus you take some strips of the pulp, lay them one of each other. And ready is the sheet. No way. You need more work as Dr. Hassan Ragab found out. We explain how to make papyrus in a very short way.

- The harvest of the papyrus plant takes place from June to September when the plants were growing one year. The soft part of the stalk (50 to 60 cm) will be cut, the green bast will be cut off.
- The white pulp now is cutten in thin stripes placed in water for the next three days. So substances like sugar, salt and starch will be dissolved and the fibres of cellulose become soft.
- Now it is the time of the rolling pin. With this the stripes are rolled what means some remains of the salt, the starch are removed, the fibres of cellulose become more soft. This work will be done again.
- Now the stripes are nearly pure of cellulose. They have to stay again in water for three days and will take now their creme colour.
- The following step is to cut the stripes for the paintings measures.
This was the preparation. Now the sheet is to be made.
- The stripes will be layed out horizontal and a little bit overlaping on a sheet or a felt. Over this the next stripes are layed out vertical. Again with the noodle pin all this is rolled to press the water out of the stripes (for this the ancient Egyptians used stonehammers) and the stripes are sticked together.
- Now this sheet is wraped again in a cloth and goes to the handpress (here the ancient Egyptians used blocks of stone). For three times the cover has to be changed to take all the remains of water out of the new handmade papyrus.
- So at least the sheet is ready - to be painted by the specialized artists. (Text and Fotos Antje and Wolfgang Sliwka)