Konigil Paper Mill (Meros)

Samarkand paper was once famous across the Islamic world: smooth, strong and polished to take ink cleanly, it was prized by scribes and calligraphers for centuries. A widely repeated story credits Chinese papermakers taken prisoner after the Battle of Talas in 751 with bringing the craft to the city. Historians treat that as legend, but by the ninth century Samarkand was certainly a major paper centre. The craft died out in the nineteenth century, when cheaper factory paper arrived.

The revival

In the 1990s a local master, Zarif Mukhtarov, and his family set out to rebuild the process from old descriptions and experiment, with support from UNESCO. Their workshop, called Meros (“heritage”), stands in Konigil village on the eastern edge of Samarkand, by a stream lined with plane trees. Today it is a working mill and a small open-air museum.

How the paper is made

• Young mulberry branches are cut and their bark is stripped and peeled, keeping only the soft inner layer.
• The bark is soaked and boiled until soft.
• A wooden hammer mill, driven by a water wheel in the stream, pounds the fibre into pulp for hours.
• The pulp is mixed with water, and sheets are lifted on a fine mesh frame, pressed and dried on boards.
• Finally each sheet is burnished with a smooth stone or shell, which gives Samarkand paper its slight sheen and durability.

The masters show every stage, and visitors can usually try lifting a sheet. The shop sells notebooks, cards, miniature paintings and dolls made from the paper.

Around the mill

The village setting is part of the appeal: tea under the trees, the sound of the water wheel, and often other crafts on show, such as natural dyeing, pottery or oil pressing. It is a good stop with children and a calm contrast to the tiled monuments in town.