Paper · a Light

The story of papermakers captured at Talas is probably legend

Papermaking is Chinese. The usual account of how it reached the Muslim world says that Chinese papermakers taken prisoner at the battle of Talas in 751 taught the craft at Samarkand. That story is first told by al-Tha'alibi, writing nearly three hundred years afterwards, and historians of the subject now doubt it, because paper was already circulating in Central Asia before 751 and one group of captives is a thin explanation for an industry. The route and the consequence are not in doubt. Samarkand paper became famous, a mill was working in Baghdad by the 790s, and the craft moved on to Damascus, Cairo, Fez, then Xativa in Spain and Fabriano in Italy. Arabic papermakers worked from rags and linen rather than bark, and Europe received paper through their mills rather than from China directly.

Samarkand to Fabriano · 8th to 13th centuries