J7d INVENTION OF PAPER. 



time, that the dearth of writing materials induced the Greeks to pursue the 

 almost sacrilegious practice of erasing the valuable writings of ancient 

 authors, that they might obtain the parchment on which these were in- 

 scribed. The more abundant manufacture of cotton paper, though not 

 before the destruction of much that was excellent, happily prevented a 

 still more extensive destruction. Many proofs are afforded, that in the 

 beginning of the twelfth century cotton paper was commonly used in the 

 eastern empire for books and writings; but it was not deemed sufficiently 

 durable for important documents, for which purpose parchment was still 

 employed. The manufacture of this kind of paper has been a flourishing 

 branch of industry in the Levant for many centuries, and is carried on with 

 great success even to the present time. The paper produced from cotton 

 is very white, strong, and of a fine grain, but not so well adapted for 

 writing upon as the paper which is now used. Much ingenuity must 

 have been exercised to reduce the cotton to a pulpy substance, and 

 ultimately render it suitable to the purpose of writing. 



After this invention the use of linen rags quitkly followed, and their 

 superiority being manifest, cotton was wholly laid aside. 



INVENTION OF PAPER. 



There is no country which has not had its learned and elaborate 

 inquiries, as to the means through which Europe became acquainted, some 

 time abjOut the eleventh century with the article of paper. Casiri, however, 

 whilst employed in translating Arabic writers, has discovered the real 

 place from which paper came. It has been known in China, where its 

 constituent part is silk, from time immemorial. In the thirtieth year of 

 the Hegira (in the middle of the seventh century), a manufactory of 

 similar paper was established at Samarcand, and in 706, fifty-eight years 

 afterwards, one Yoiizef Amru, of Mecca, discovered the art of making it 

 with cotton, an article more commonly used in Arabia than silk. This 

 is clearly proved by the following passages from Muhamad Al Gazeli's 

 De Arabicarum Antiquitatum Eruditione. " In the ninety -eighth year of 

 the Hegira," says he, " a certain Joseph Amru first of all invented paper 

 in the city of Mecca, and taught the Arabs the use of it." And as an 

 additional proof that the Arabians, and not the Greeks of the lower 

 empire, as it has been long affirmed, were the first inventors of cotton 

 paper, it may be observed, that a Greek of great learning, whom Mont- 

 faucon, mentions as having been employed in forming a catalogue of the 



