The history of mankind is above all the story of the traffic between the three great civilisations of the Old World: the West, the East and Islam – three cultures that have warred, traded and debated for centuries. The most obvious sign of difference between these societies is the way they write. The badge of Western civilisation is the Latin alphabet. The following 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 SingtonWritten byDavid Sington, Martin de la FouchardièreYear2020Duration3 x 52'/2 x 60'CoproductionDox ProductionsBroadcastARTE France, PBS/NOVA, BBCDistributionPBS International
