The use of papyrus as a writing material, well known from Antiquity, was continued by the Arab conquerors of Egypt from the mid-seventh century onwards and remained in use until the eleventh century, when it was largely superseded by paper. Although papyrus was exported to, and used in, various other countries in the Middle East and even Southern Europe, the bulk of the surviving fragments hail from Egypt. Its use was widespread, ranging from ephemeral private and official correspondence to tax registers, land deeds or other official documents and business transactions. In all, about 150,000 of these fragments are known to exist, but most of these remain unedited.

Apart from isolated instances, Arabic papyrology began with the Austrian scholar Joseph von Karabacek (1845-1918) and after him Adolf Grohmann (1887-1967). It is now generally accepted among Western scholars that Arabic papyri provide important historical evidence that may help to refine, correct and even supplant the so-called 'narrative sources', the historical texts that were composed during the Abbasid era. Especially with regard to the early Arab conquests and the rise of Islam, the Abbasid literary sources appear to reflect an edited or reconstructed version that suited the needs of an established orthodoxy and statecraft which did not yet exist during or immediately after the conquests.

The Leiden collection of Arabic papyri is relatively modest in size with 104 items and c.146 identifiable text fragments. In terms of contents it covers the same range of subjects as described above. One of these, registered separately as Or. 8264, contains a fragment of the Qur’an, sura 71 verses 9-25. The objects are relatively small, most of them not exceeding c.20 × 10cm. Several items are not written on papyrus but textile or paper. The collection has received relatively close attention from the scholarly public, most notably in conjunction with the various initiatives deployed by the papyrologist and Leiden Professor of Arabic Petra M. Sijpesteijn and fellow scholars (see, for instance, Noseda 2003, Sijpesteijn 2013, Disclosing Arabic Papyri from the Leiden University Library project website).