Middle AgesTechnology Paper reaches the Islamic world c. 751 CEMajor Paper mills in Samarkand and Baghdad make books affordable across the Muslim world. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → First fired clay figures → First pottery → Potter's wheel → The wheel → Spoke-wheeled chariot → Hittite Empire → Iron Age begins → Rome founded (traditional date) → Roman Republic founded → Caesar crosses the Rubicon → Roman Empire begins → Jesus of Nazareth crucified → Muhammad's first revelations → The Hijra → Arab conquests → Abbasid Caliphate → Battle of Talas → Paper reaches the Islamic world Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentbritannica.comHistory of printing: paper's spread from China to the Arab world (Britannica) ↗Editor's pickBookJonathan M. BloomPaper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubehow paper spread to the Islamic world ↗Editor's pick