In 751 CE Muslim forces defeated a Chinese army at Talas, Turkestan in one of the least remembered battles in history.
Yet, it had far-reaching effects on the spread of knowledge in the world, producing the computer of that age. The paper you hold had that battle to thank. For among the Chinese prisoners taken by the Muslims to Samarkand were experts in paper-making, a craft that the Chinese had kept to themselves for six centuries.
The rest of the world used animal skins, papyrus or slabs of stone to write. These were cumbersome and could not be produced on a mass scale. From Baghdad paper-making spread to Damascus, from there along the coast of North Africa and to Muslim Spain. From here it spread to the rest of Europe.
ANOTHER GIFT OF MUSLIMS TO THE WORLD
