178 AH
Approximate date
Baghdad's first paper mill opens under Harun al-Rashid. Cheap paper replaces papyrus and parchment, and bookshops fill a whole street.
How it touches Islam Copies of the Quran, once costly treasures written on skin, became affordable for ordinary families.
Source: History ·
Borders come from Cliopatria, the open map of the Seshat Global History Databank (CC BY 4.0), and are approximate. Dates before 1000 BCE are estimates, and for the earliest prophets the Quran gives the order of events but not their years. Sources: the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim, the Seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wan-Nihaya, and standard histories. See also the villains of Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal, and the library of people, nations, empires and places.
