Paper

01Chinese prisoners captured at Talas in 751 AD transmitted papermaking to the Islamic world — the technology spread faster than any army.
02Baghdad's first paper mill opened around 793 AD; by 900, Islamic scholars were producing books on a scale China alone had managed.
03Europe's first paper mill appeared in Fabriano, Italy, in 1276 — 525 years after Talas, and only after Moorish Spain passed the technique.

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At the Battle of Talas in 751 AD, Tang China lost to an Abbasid army — and among the Chinese prisoners were papermakers. Within 50 years, Baghdad had its first paper mill. Rome had none for another 400 years.