History of Paper

Paper as we know it, was invented in China, AD 105, by the Chinese Eunuch Ts'ai Lun. It was, thin, feted, formed, flat made in porous molds from macerated vegetable fiber. (Hunter 1943,4) Before the 3rd century AD, the first paper was made of disintegrating cloth- bark of trees and vegetation such as mulberry, hemp, china grass (Hunter 1943,56)Paper was used in China from AD 868, for engraving religious pictures and reached its height of in 1634 with the wooden block prints made popular by Sung Ying-hsing.

The technology of making paper moved from China to Japan and then to Korea in AD 610 where it was commonly made from mulberry bark and Gampi. Later it was made from bamboo and rice straw. (Hunter 1943,59)

Marco Polo gave one of the first descriptions of Chinese papermaking in his 'Milione'. He mentions that the Chinese emperors jealously guard the secrets of papermaking and that fine paper is manufactured from vegetable fiber: rice or tea straw, bamboo canes and hemp rag cloth. 

Chinese paper made from bark and the fibers of rags and hemp may have traveled on caravans following the Gobi Desert, the Desert of Takla Makan and the Tarim Valley and finally arrived in Samarkan. But papermaking was a closely guarded secret and it was not actually made there until after 751 AD. In 751 the Chinese lost a battle in Turkistan on the banks of the Tharaz River. It was recorded that among the Chinese prisoners were skilled papermakers. The craftsmen began making paper in Samarkan. (Hunter 1943,60)

Samarkan was a good place to make paper because it had an abundant supply of hemp and flax and pure water. (Hunter 1943,61) 

It has been conjectured that the first paper mill was established in Baghdad (http://www.al-bab.com/arab/literature/lit.htm)

Papermaking then spread to Damascus and to Egypt and Morocco. It took 500 years to find its way to Europe. (Hunter 1943, 115)By the end of the 10th century, paper had replaced parchment and papyrus in the Arab world. (...