The Silk Road’s Lost Library: Samarkand’s Paper Revolution

The Story of Uzbekistan: Silk Road Kingdoms and Soviet Legacy — Fexingo History · Sep 7, 2026 · 9m · transcript

Before the printing press reached Europe, a Chinese prisoner in Samarkand changed the world’s information landscape forever. In this episode of The Story of Uzbekistan, we trace the journey of papermaking from the Battle of Talas in 751 CE to the bustling workshops of the Samanid Empire. We meet Ziyad ibn Salih, the Abbasid governor who recognized the value of this new technology, and explore how Samarkand became the primary supplier of high-quality kağıt for the Islamic Golden Age. This shift didn't just make books cheaper; it fueled the intellectual explosion that produced Avicenna…