A border battle in 751 AD leaked Chinese papermaking secrets to the Islamic world

When Abbasid and allied forces defeated a Tang Chinese army near the Talas River in 751 AD, they took Chinese prisoners back to Samarkand — among them, by the traditional account, skilled papermakers. Within decades Samarkand had its own paper industry, and the craft spread on through Baghdad, Cairo and eventually Muslim Spain centuries before it reached the rest of Europe.

— Jonathan M. Bloom, Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World — Yale University Press, 2001
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