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PREFACE Ornament is alive. Its relegation in favour of pure functional form has been in doubt for some time, its authentic power of expression has certainly received renewed recognition. From the European point of view ornament is always in relation to the picture, as an isolated entity it is an exception. In Islamic art ornament is granted a much more significant role, it determines the pictorial language of the Near East. The beginnings of the history of paper are, of course, known to be located much futrher east, in China and Japan. It is often overlooked that marbled paper was used in the Heian era, decorated paper was thus an everyday object of culture. After the Battle of Thalas in 751, the Arabian world first came in contact with paper decoration from knowledge passed on by Chinese prisoners of war.