Paper has an amazing and long history that is spread
through many nations. The wonderful creation of paper in our world
helped people so that they can share information and learn from
them. Here we introduce to you a small glimce of the wide history
of paper. We hope this information will be helpful in understanding
the history of the paper products.
The birth of Paper:
The birth of paper started around 5000 years ago in the Nile river
valley in Egypt. The Egyption people used to creat paper by a grass
called Cyperous flourished(from papyrus the word paper came along).
The Egyptians cut thin strips from the plant's softened them in
the Nile river. Then, these strips where set together alined to
form a sheet, where these sheet are left in the sun to dry. The
produced sheets were great for writing. Because these sheets were
lite and easy to carry they became the writing tool for the Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans. They used these sheets for record keeping, spiritual
texts and works of art.
The papyrus sheets were similar to paper that we used today in terms
of functionality, being laminated sheets they were more like a mat.
Same paper products were developed in other lands . For example,
in Central America during the 2nd Century AD the Mayans people produced
paper for bookmaking. In the Pacific Islands , a paper was made
by beating a fine bark over specially shaped logs to make clothes.
Never the less, none of these sheets would qualify as a real paper
today.Text Box: In China , paper as we know it today was produced.
Exploring the tombs of the former Han Dynasty (207BC-9AD) have shown
silk cloth bearing the texts of Lao Tzu - the father of Taoism .
In 105 AD, Han Emperor Ho-Ti's chief eunuch T'sai Lun has used a
wide variety of materials and beating the fibre of plants until
each filament was separate. The individual fibers were mixed with
water in a large vat. Then, a board was submerged in the vat and
lifted up through the water, taking the fibers on its surface. The
fiber then left to dry, then the thin resulted sheet of fiber became
what we call today paper. This became the first discovey of thin
sheet paper.
The Spread of Papermaking:
In the 3rd century the secret art of papermaking began to spreed
out of China , first to Vietnam and then Tibet . It was in Korea
in the 4th century and spread to Japan in 6th. During the 8th century,
the Shotuka undertook a massive project consisting of printing a
million prayers - dharani - on individual sheets of paper. The fine
art of papermaking has continued in Japan to this day, having a
great appreciation and ever increasing sophistication.
The spread to the west:
Papermaking spread slowly throughout Asia to Nepal and then to India
. In 751AD when the Tang Dynasty was at war with the Islamic world,
paper made its way through. In the battle on the banks of the Tarus
river, Islamic warriors took a Chinese caravan which happened to
have several papermakers. They spread them away to Samarkand , which
was one of the great center for paper production. From there papermakers
made their way further west through Baghdad , Damascus and Cairo
. In the 12th century, when the Moors from North Africa invaded
Spain and Portugal they brought the technology with them to the
rest of Europe .
Spreading In Europe:
The use of papyrus had dropped out in the 9th century in Europe
. The smooth parchment was a preferred option for the artists and
literati of the time. But bying a parchment (made from animal skin)
was extremely expensive. It has been estimated that a single hand
written bible on parchment required a 300 of sheep skin. In15th
Century, people started to use paper as a practical everyday item.
Johann Gutenburg perfected movable type and printed his famous bible
in 1456, he not only spread the word of Christianity, but also sparked
a revolution in paper communication.
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