According to historical narratives, after a battle between Chinese troops and the forces of the Samarkand ruler Abu Muslim in the 8th century, many Chinese were taken as prisoners. Among those captured were masters in paper production. They agreed to disclose the highly-kept secret and set up paper production in Samarkand in exchange of their life. From then on, Samarkand became a Central Asian center for silk-paper production. This was the first time that paper was produced in the Muslim world.

The Samarkand paper was in great demand due to its smoothness and colour. Its main feature however, was its durability. Most of the documents that were written on Samarkand paper have remained in a good condition till today and are still kept in different museums of the world. 

Today, the Meros Paper Mill founded by the Mukhtarovs brothers in recent times, operates from Konigil village near Samarkand. Thanks to their efforts, the ancient craft of producing paper from mulberry trees has been restored. 

Visitors watch the manual process from beginning to end at the largely outdoor facility whose garden, brook, wooden, water-mill and tea house all display products made exclusively from the mulberry tree.

One of cities here – Namangan is a large city 500 miles from Tashkent – close to borders of kazakhistan, kyrgistan and tajekistan. students from neighbouring countries come here to study.