Rag paper in Samarkand and Baghdad
Papel de trapo en Samarcanda y Bagdad
- Date
- 794-795 · confidence medium
- Place
- Baghdad, Iraq
- Credited to
- Barmakid viziers (al-Fadl ibn Yahya), craftsmen from Samarkand
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The Islamic world's first paper mills, which made paper from linen and hemp rags instead of bark. Cheap paper replaced parchment and papyrus in Abbasid administration and drove a surge in book production.
The tradition that the secret arrived with Chinese prisoners after the Battle of Talas (751) comes from al-Tha'alibi (11th century) and is doubtful; paper was already circulating in Central Asia beforehand.
What it led to
- paper-based administration and chancery
- book market (warraqun) and vast libraries
- spread of paper to Damascus, Cairo, Fez and al-Andalus