OEIENTAL ELEMENTS OF CULTUKE IN THE OCCIDENT. 523 



clcntly to the Mukatftba, or right of t^laves to buy thv'iv liberty, for as 

 intidel prisoners of Avar were by Ishmiie law retained as serfs until 

 they could accumulate the necessary ransom, the}" had to be uiven an 

 opportunity for carrying- on a trade. In the present case some of the 

 Chinese paper makers chose the paper industry. The enterprise was 

 successful and became a ptu-manent accjuisition for Samarkand. Ziyad 

 Ibn Salih is therefore not to be considered a genius in economics who 

 wished to turn the skill of the foreignei's into the service of his own 

 state. From both Aral)ic and Chinese sources, which agree ev^en as 

 regards the month, we learn that Ziyad gained a great victor}- over 

 the Turkish princes, who were waging war against each other, and the 

 auxiliaries sent by tlu^ Chinese Emperor under the conmiand of the 

 Korean Kao Hsien-fa in fluly of 751, Only on this occasion could 

 those prisoners of war have come to Samarkand. 



The Barmecide Al Fadl Ibn Yahya, brothei'of thegrtmd \'izier (la far 

 who is known from the Thousand and One Nights, had as governor of 

 Khurasrui opportunities to become acquainted with the Samarkand 

 paper and transplanted this industry, as is related by Ibn Khaldiln 

 under the reign of Harun-ar-Rashid, between TH4 and TDS to Baghdad. 

 By this step the Barmecide accjuired great praise for himself, the city 

 of the Califs having taken the lead in paper manufactories that spread 

 into all Islamic countries, as far as Spain. The Museum Erzher/og 

 Rainer possesses two Arabic letters on rag paper (Nos. HIT and i»lS) of 

 about S(K) A. D., which are prol)al)ly two specimens of the Bagdad 

 paper factory a few }'ears after its establishment. Tlu> excaxations of 

 M. A. Stein in Chinese Turkestan may have l)rought to light still older 

 paper samples." By a chronological sifting of the Fayum documents, 

 the gradual use of paper in place of papyrus can be distinctly fol- 

 lowed, and in the middle of the tenth century the latter is entirely 

 superseded. At the beginning of the eleventh century we tirst meet 

 in th(^ Fustat l)azar with packing paper'' in i)lace of the coarse pap}rus 

 of which IM.in}', xiii, 23, says: Nam emporica inutilis sc.ril)endo invo- 

 lucris chartarum segestriumque mercibus usum pru'lx^t, ideo a merca- 

 toribus cognominata. 



In agreement with the account of Fihrist (p. 21) that the K.'mrasan 

 Y^aper was made of linen, WiesneFs microscopic iinestigations ha\e 

 pro\'(Hl that cotton paper was not the predecessor of linen paper, as 

 was formerly thought, but had never existi^d.'' 



For the further spread of paper in the Occident we ha\ c only W'at- 



«So far only the preliminary report, London, li)01, in aa-e^Hible to me. 



'^ Comp. Karabaeek, Das arahisclie I'apier, \k 'M. i'erliaps the Kiiyptiau docu- 

 ment liiids come from Huch iiackiiiji i)a]H'r sloi'cs t'nr \vhi<'li tin- numerous di)cuments 

 of a ])rivate character would speak. 



'J. Wiesner, Die Faijumei- und I'sclnnuneiner I'apiere: ]\Iittlieiluiiij;eri aus der 

 Sanmduiig Krzherzog Rainer, vols. L' and .'!, Wicn, pj). 17!»-2(i(). 



