The Uzbek entrepreneur tapping paper’s age-old power

KONI GHIL, Uzbekistan: The passage of time seems to have slowed down at Zarif Mukhtarov´s paper mill in a village not far from ex-Soviet Uzbekistan´s silk road city, Samarkand.

Here in the countryside, where rulers of the Timurid Empire once sought a verdant sanctuary from their bustling capital, geese sidle by in pairs and tourists feast on pilau made with local rice from clay-rich soil.

Mukhtarov, a 62-year-old Samarkand native, was a potter like his father before he set about reviving a paper-making technique coveted for centuries by much of the known world. Nowadays, he says, the legendary paper once produced in Samarkand has been consigned to history by the bland, white, industrial-made stuff and, of course, computers.

But that doesn´t stop thousands of guests arriving at his door every year in the village of Koni Ghil, which has become a must-stop on the country´s growing tourist trail. “Foreign guests come here to learn more about our traditions and our history,” said Mukhtarov. “Local people come here to learn about themselves,” he added, as his kite-flying, eight-year-old granddaughter Mekhrubon tore around the workers´ yard in a blur of colour.

The story of how Samarkand emerged as a global paper-making centre is a favourite among historians who study the rise and fall of ancient trade routes linking East Asia and Europe, even if they admit the precise details are hazy. Production there began some time in the second half of the eighth century AD after Chinese troops invaded Central Asia but were defeated by forces under the control of Abu Muslim, a general of the Arab Abbasid caliphate.

“Among the Chinese (prisoners) captured were masters in the art of making paper,” says Makhmud Nasrullayev, a historian at the University of Samarkand.