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The transfer of paper to the Muslim world happened through contact with the Tang Dynasty. Paper-making knowledge traveled westward after Tang interactions with Central Asia and the Abbasid realm, notably around the mid-8th century during and after the clash at Talas in 751 CE. Captured Chinese craftspeople and papermaking techniques spread to Baghdad and other Islamic centers, where paper transformed administration, record-keeping, and scholarship. The other dynasties came either later or earlier than this pivotal exchange, so the Tang Dynasty is the period that best explains how paper first reached the Islamic world.