China had paper by the early 2nd century, but according to tradition it reached the Islamic world only after the Battle of Talas in 751, via Chinese captives.
The events
- Battle of Talas751 · Talas. An Abbasid army defeated Tang Chinese forces by the Talas River in Central Asia. The battle secured Islamic influence in the region, and according to tradition captured Chinese artisans brought the secret of papermaking to Samarkand.
- Cai Lun and the invention of paper105 · Luoyang. The court eunuch Cai Lun presented the Han emperor with a method of making paper from bark, hemp, rags and old fishing nets. The cheap, light material replaced bamboo slips and silk, and later spread through the Islamic world to Europe.
More amazing facts
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- 79 · 200 A little over a century after Vesuvius buried Pompeii, across the ocean in Teotihuacan the Pyramid of the Sun rose — one of the largest pyramids in the world.
- 165 · 166 In 166, men claiming to be envoys of the ruler of Rome — probably Marcus Aurelius — reached China.
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- 301 · 313 · 330 Among the first Christian states were Armenia (traditionally 301) and Aksum in Ethiopia (around 330).
- 378 In January 378, a party from Teotihuacan arrived at the Maya city of Tikal, about 1,000 km away.