Database: Papermaking

Folio from a Quran Manuscript / 1137, Iran or Iraq

A technical revolution played a pivotal role in the scientific blooming of the Abbasid empire: the diffusion of papermaking.

Before paper, humans wrote on clay tablets, silk, rocks, turtle shells, stretched animal skins (parchment) or papyrus. Each of them brought their own challenges. Paper, which can be mass-produced, is an even and sturdy surface and a much more practical writing medium than any of the aforementioned materials.

Tradition attributes the invention of paper to a Chinese court official of the first century, Cai Lun, though some forms of papermaking existed in China for centuries before his time. Its usage became widespread, first in government and then in everyday life. In the eighth century, papermaking spread from East Asia to the Abbasid Empire. At times, Chinese engineers captured by caliphal soldiers have been considered the initiators of this movement. But Chinese and Middle Eastern papermaking techniques were quite different, the former using mostly tree fibers and the latter, rags. It is therefore more probable that "Silk Road" travelers brought the idea with them and adapted it to the environment of Baghdad. From there, papermaking reached Europe in the eleventh century.

The replacement of costly papyrus or parchment with economical and durable paper had a momentous effect on Abbasid intellectual life. It made book production easier, faster and cheaper. Book copyists could be found in markets and public as well as private libraries were founded throughout the empire. Moreover, the ability to exchange ideas by sending copies of books added to the flowering of intellectual thought across Eurasia, North Africa, and Europe. This gave birth to important discoveries in mathematical, astrological, medical, and technical fields 800 years before the so-called “Scientific Revolution”.