<P> The laborious process of paper making was refined and machinery was designed for bulk manufacturing of paper . Production began in Baghdad, where a method was invented to make a thicker sheet of paper, which helped transform papermaking from an art into a major industry . The use of water - powered pulp mills for preparing the pulp material used in papermaking, dates back to Samarkand in the 8th century, though this should not be confused with paper mills (see Paper mills section below). The Muslims also introduced the use of trip hammers (human - or animal - powered) in the production of paper, replacing the traditional Chinese mortar and pestle method . In turn, the trip hammer method was later employed by the Chinese . Historically, trip hammers were often powered by a water wheel, and are known to have been used in China as long ago as 40 BCE or maybe even as far back as the Zhou Dynasty (1050 BCE--221 BCE). </P> <P> By the 9th century, Muslims were using paper regularly, although for important works like copies of the revered Qur'an, vellum was still preferred . Advances in book production and bookbinding were introduced . In Muslim countries they made books lighter--sewn with silk and bound with leather - covered paste boards; they had a flap that wrapped the book up when not in use . As paper was less reactive to humidity, the heavy boards were not needed . By the 12th century in Marrakech in Morocco a street was named "Kutubiyyin" or book sellers which contained more than 100 bookshops . </P> <P> In 1035 a Persian traveler visiting markets in Cairo noted that vegetables, spices and hardware were wrapped in paper for the customers after they were sold . Since the First Crusade in 1096, paper manufacturing in Damascus had been interrupted by wars, but its production continued in two other centres . Egypt continued with the thicker paper, while Iran became the center of the thinner papers . Papermaking was diffused across the Islamic world, from where it was diffused further west into Europe . Paper manufacture was introduced to India in the 13th century by Muslim merchants, where it almost wholly replaced traditional writing materials . </P> <P> The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th century, probably using paper made in the Islamic part of the Iberian Peninsula . They used hemp and linen rags as a source of fiber . The first recorded paper mill in the Iberian Peninsula was in Xàtiva in 1056 . Papermaking reached Europe as early as 1085 in Toledo and was firmly established in Xàtiva, Spain by 1150 . It is clear that France had a paper mill by 1190, and by 1276 mills were established in Fabriano, Italy and in Treviso and other northern Italian towns by 1340 . Papermaking then spread further northwards, with evidence of paper being made in Troyes, France by 1348, in Holland sometime around 1340--1350, in Mainz, Germany in 1320, and in Nuremberg by 1390 in a mill set up by Ulman Stromer . This was just about the time when the woodcut printmaking technique was transferred from fabric to paper in the old master print and popular prints . There was a paper mill in Switzerland by 1432 and the first mill in England was set up by John Tate in 1490 near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, but the first commercially successful paper mill in Britain did not occur before 1588 when John Spilman set up a mill near Dartford in Kent . During this time, paper making spread to Poland by 1491, to Austria by 1498, to Russia by 1576, to the Netherlands by 1586, to Denmark by 1596, and to Sweden by 1612 . </P>

Who introduced to spain paper which had been invented by the chinese