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Known as the “granary” of Rome in Pre-Islamic times, Egypt’s fertile agrarian base also enabled it to be the pre-eminent grower of flax in pre-modern times. In the Mediterranean and beyond, the country was by far the largest producer of linen, a commodity so vital that it not merely underpinned the textile industry but was also the linchpin of the whole economy.1 Most surviving Egyptian textiles are made of linen, twenty-two varieties of which are known from the Geniza docu ments.2 Linen,