Abbasid
The Paper-Makers of Samarqand
A craft that changed the world of books, c. 760 CE
c. 143 AH / 760 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Samarqand, in Transoxiana, on the rivers of the Zarafshan
39.6540, 66.9597 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
Among the crafts that did most to shape the civilisation of Islam was the making of paper, and it was at Samarqand in Transoxiana, the green oasis-city on the Silk Road, that the Muslim world learned and perfected it in the eighth century. By the traditional account the secret of paper-making, long known in China, was carried west after the battle on the river Talas in 751, where the Chinese prisoners are said to have included men who knew the craft; the working of rag into paper had older Central Asian roots as well, so the Talas story is best taken as a tradition rather than a settled fact, but it was at Samarqand that paper-making first truly flourished in the Muslim lands. The mills drew on the abundant water of the Zarafshan, and the paper was made from beaten linen and hemp rag rather than from wood, which gave it a smooth, strong, even surface; the fame of Samarqand paper became a commonplace of the geographers, and al-Tha'alibi rahimahu Allah, in his Lata'if al-Ma'arif, lists the paper of Samarqand among the choice things for which a region is renowned, noting how it drove out the papyrus and parchment that books had been written on before. From Samarqand the craft spread westward over the following century and more, to Baghdad, where a paper-market and a street of stationers grew up, and on to Damascus, Cairo, the Maghrib and al-Andalus. The change was momentous: paper was far cheaper and more plentiful than the parchment and papyrus it replaced, and it underpinned the booksellers' and stationers' markets, the warraqin who copied and sold books, the cheap multiplication of copies, and the vast outpouring of writing, scholarship and record-keeping that marks the Islamic golden age, long before paper passed, much later, from the Muslim world to Europe. This scene depicts a water-powered paper-mill at work at Samarqand: the timber water-wheel and the channel led indoors, the stone vats of pulp, workers dipping screened moulds and lifting thin wet sheets, the racks of paper drying in rows, and, at a bench to the side, men gathering the fresh leaves into a book. In keeping with the project's ethics the figures are anonymous and stand for the trade rather than for any named person.
What you see
Down the middle of the workshop run long stone vats brimming with a watery grey pulp. Workers wade up to them and lower flat rectangular moulds, a wooden frame strung with a fine screen, then lift them clear so a thin even sheet of wet paper sits draining on the mesh. This dipping of the mould is the heart of the craft.
On the right, tall wooden racks hold rows of pale sheets pegged up to dry, and round shallow baskets of soaked rag and fibre wait on the floor. The pulp is beaten linen and hemp rag, not wood, which is why the finished sheets are so smooth and strong.
A great timber water-wheel turns at the edge of the floor where a fast channel has been led indoors, and water runs in cut runnels across the workshop. The mill stands on flowing water because the rag must be pounded to pulp and the screens kept wet; this is a water-powered paper-mill, not a dry scriptorium.
This is the making of paper, the craft the Muslims of Central Asia learned and perfected at Samarqand. By the traditional account the secret was carried west after a battle on the river Talas, though the working of rag into paper had older roots in this region; from here the craft spread across the lands of Islam.
Cheap and abundant, the sheets made here would replace costly parchment and papyrus and feed the booksellers' markets, the copyists and the great libraries; the multiplication of books that marks the golden age of Islamic learning rested on paper like this.
Through the open walls a sun-baked oasis town of mud-brick stands on the watered plain of the Zarafshan in Transoxiana, the land between the two rivers on the Silk Road. Samarqand sat where caravan routes met abundant running water, exactly what a paper-mill needs.
At a low bench to one side, men sit over an open codex of fresh leaves, reading and gathering the sheets, the workshop's own product turned at once to a book. No individual is shown by recognisable likeness; the figures stand for the trade, not for named persons.
Further reading & cross-references
al-Tha'alibi, Lata'if al-Ma'arif (early eleventh century): Praises the paper of Samarqand among the things for which the region is famous and notes that it displaced papyrus and parchment; used for the fame and quality of Samarqand paper.
Sunni geographers and topographers on Transoxiana (al-Muqaddasi, Yaqut al-Hamawi): Used for Samarqand as a watered oasis on the Silk Road and for the region's manufactures; they confirm place and setting, not the precise origin date.
Accounts of the battle of Talas (751) and the transmission of the craft: Used for the traditional account of how paper-making reached the Muslim lands; the link to captured Chinese artisans is traditional and debated, and rag-paper had older Central Asian roots.
Studies of the history of paper in the Islamic world (e.g. the standard surveys of Islamic paper and the warraqin): Used for the rag-pulp technique, the water-powered mill, the spread from Samarqand westward, and the effect on books, libraries and the book trade.
Material and technical evidence on early hand paper-making (vat, mould-and-screen, drying, rag fibre analysis of surviving sheets): Used for the workshop process shown: pulping, the dipped screen mould, pressing and drying, and the linen-and-hemp rag furnish.
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