Papermaking in Abbasid Baghdad: How Paper Reached Islam

Papermaking in Abbasid Baghdad began in the late 8th century, when a craft invented in China and practised in Central Asia took root in the capital of the caliphate. Within two centuries paper had replaced papyrus and largely displaced parchment across the Islamic world. Cheap, light and easy to produce, it transformed government record-keeping, the book trade and scholarship, and it later passed from the Islamic world to Europe.

From China to Central Asia

Paper was developed in China, where its improvement is traditionally credited to the court official Cai Lun around AD 105 (see Invention of Paper). Over the following centuries the technique spread along trade routes. Paper documents from the early 8th century have been found in Central Asia, including letters written in Sogdian, the language of merchants around Samarkand.

A popular story links the arrival of paper in the Islamic world to the Battle of Talas in 751, where Abbasid forces defeated a Tang Chinese army. The 11th-century writer al-Thaalibi claimed that Chinese prisoners taken there began making paper in Samarkand. Modern historians, notably Jonathan Bloom, consider this unlikely as a full explanation: paper was already known in the region, and the technique more probably spread gradually through local craftsmen and commerce. What is clear is that by the late 8th century Samarkand was famous for its paper.

Paper comes to Baghdad

Baghdad, founded in 762, grew quickly into a vast administrative and commercial centre. Its bureaucracy needed enormous quantities of writing material. Papyrus came only from Egypt, and parchment, made from animal skins, was expensive and slow to produce.

Arabic writers, including the historian Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, credit the Barmakid family, who served as ministers to Harun al-Rashid, with promoting paper for government use. A paper workshop is traditionally said to have opened in Baghdad around 794–795. Ibn Khaldun names al-Fadl ibn Yahya the Barmakid as the official who advised replacing parchment with paper in the chancery. These accounts were written long afterwards, but they agree that paper was established in Baghdad by about 800.

Papermakers in Iraq developed their own methods. Instead of mulberry bark, they used mostly linen rags and fibres such as flax and hemp. The material was soaked and beaten into pulp, sometimes in mills powered by water, then formed into sheets on moulds. The sheets were dried, coated with starch and polished with a smooth stone so that ink would not soak in. Baghdad became known for large, high-quality sheets.

A revolution in writing

Paper changed the way the caliphate worked. Government offices could keep larger archives and send more correspondence. Merchants used paper for accounts, contracts and letters of credit.

Above all, paper made books cheaper. A class of copyists and booksellers, the warraqun, grew up in Baghdad, with a booksellers’ market selling works on every subject. In 987 the Baghdad bookseller Ibn al-Nadim compiled the Fihrist, a catalogue of thousands of titles available in Arabic. The translation of Greek, Persian and Indian works associated with the House of Wisdom depended on a ready supply of writing material.

One of the oldest dated Arabic books on paper is a manuscript of a work on rare words in the hadith by Abu Ubayd, now in Leiden, dated 866. Copies of the Qur’an were usually written on parchment until about the 10th century; the copy made in Baghdad in 1000–1001 by the calligrapher Ibn al-Bawwab is among the earliest surviving Qur’ans on paper.

Spread across the Islamic world and to Europe

From Iraq the craft spread to Syria, where Damascus became an important centre, and to Egypt, where paper had replaced papyrus by the 10th and 11th centuries. It moved west along North Africa to Fez and into al-Andalus. By the 12th century Xàtiva, near Valencia, was famous for its paper.

Christian Europe learned papermaking from these sources. Paper mills appeared in Italy in the 13th century, Fabriano becoming especially important, and Italian papermakers introduced improvements such as watermarks. Two centuries later, a plentiful supply of paper made the success of printing in Europe possible.

Timeline

• c. 105: Papermaking is improved in Han China, traditionally by Cai Lun.
• Early 8th century: Paper is in use in Central Asia, including Sogdian lands.
• 751: Battle of Talas; later legend links it to the spread of papermaking.
• c. 794–795: Traditional date of the first paper workshop in Baghdad.
• 866: Date of one of the oldest surviving Arabic books on paper.
• 987: Ibn al-Nadim compiles the Fihrist in Baghdad.
• 1000–1001: Ibn al-Bawwab copies a Qur’an on paper in Baghdad.
• 12th century: Paper is made at Xàtiva in al-Andalus.

Why it matters

The adoption of paper in Abbasid Baghdad was a quiet but far-reaching change. It underpinned the administration of a huge empire and the explosion of books and learning in the medieval Islamic world. By passing the craft on to Europe, the Islamic world also helped prepare the ground for the age of printing.