The most obvious sign of difference between societies is the way they write. The badge of Western civilisation is the Latin alphabet. The flowing script of Islam and the calligraphy of China are equally distinct and equally characteristic. But these three writing systems do more than simply symbolise the differences between the societies that use them: they helped to create those differences in the first place. The way that people write influences what they write, and thereby what they think, and who they become. The story of the struggle between the West, the East and Islam is written in their writing systems. If history has a script, it is script itself.
Directed byDavid SingtonYear2019Duration3 x 52'/2 x 60'CoproductionDox Productions, ARTE FranceBroadcastARTE France, PBS-NOVA
