Looking things up and writing things down: networks and notebooks in 4th/10th century Bagdhad

Whatever their methodology, investigations on cultural milieus draw from a similar mix of materials: - anagraphical information from biographical profiles (dates and places of residence, lists of teachers and students, known associates); - narrative accounts from biographical profiles, chronicles, or adab works, describing interactions between contemporaries; - and the names of the individuals who are the sources for these accounts. This paper describes my recent work on reconstructing the intersecting networks of Baghdad’s cultural and political life through these sources, focussing on the use of books and notebooks as tools for the dissemination of culture in the fourth/tenth century.