Papermaking Reaches the Islamic World

Name: Papermaking Reaches the Islamic World
Start: 751
End: 760

Type Event Region Central Asia Time 751–760

After the Battle of Talas in 751 CE, captured Chinese papermakers spread papermaking into the Islamic world, laying the foundation for Islamic schola…

Timeline

751Talas · Central AsiaTang general Gao Xianzhi's army was defeated at Talas by the Abbasid coalition and Karluk forces; a large number of Tang soldiers were captured. According to later Arabic records, papermakers were among them, becoming the key opportunity for the westward transmission of the technology.
c. 751–794Samarkand · TransoxianaCaptured craftsmen taught papermaking in Samarkand, which soon became an early papermaking center of the Islamic world; the technology then spread via Khorasan to Mesopotamia, and paper mills were established in Baghdad during the reign of Harun al-Rashid.

Sources

纸的文化史 — 马克·科尔兰 (2006)
The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4 — R. N. Frye (ed.) (1975)