The first written language, Sumerian cuneiform, is believed to date to around 3000 bc. Archaeologists have found evidence that astronomical texts were still being written in cuneiform in the first century of the Common Era; decadent varieties of the language survived to the time of Christ.

“There is one thing at which I cannot sufficiently wonder,” wrote Pliny the Elder, “that of some trees, the very memory has perished, and even the names recorded by authors have passed out of knowledge.”

According to philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, “Writing was an invention which took about two thousand years to make its effect felt. Do you recall, even in Plato’s dialogues, the discussions are seldom if ever about what the participants have ‘read’ but almost invariably about what they ‘remember’?”

After the death of Muhammad in Medina in 632, the Quran was preserved by followers who memorized its contents. Those who can recite from memory its 78,000 words are known as hafiz or hafiza. There are said to be millions today who have completely memorized the holy text. In 2005 Amina Abdul-Majid, a blind sixteen-year-old Somali, became the first girl to win a Quran recitation competition held in Mogadishu.