imported paper

Ingredients

paper

Evidence

"Lydon reports that the earliest West African [Arabic] manuscript dates from the 15th century while the earliest imported paper dates from the 12th century."

Remarks

Timbuktu is identified as a primary distribution center for writing paper in West Africa until the 19th century (p. 6). There are estimated to be about one million Islamic manuscripts in private libraries in the Timbuktu area (p. 12).