dark red anemone

Ingredients

dark red anemone, humid dung (sirqīn/sirfīn), gum arabic

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Take the desired amount of dark red anemone (p. 128, Recipe 2). Place the material in a thin Syrian or Maghribi bottle (p. 128, Recipe 3). The bottle is then buried in humid dung (p. 128, Recipe 4). The dung is referred to by various names in the text: sirqīn, sirfīn, 'the bowels of the horse', 'the nature useful to the nature', or 'the unstable fire' (p. 128, Recipe 4). The manure must be humid and should be substituted with other wet manure every three days (p. 128, Recipe 5). The process continues until the substance has completely melted and become liquid (p. 129, Recipe 6). For added brightness, a proper amount of powdered gum arabic is added to the solution (p. 129, Recipe 11).

Evidence

"This copy is of the people of Maghreb; it doesn’t fade from the parchment and its traces don’t disappear from the paper. You will discover that it is a beautiful and marvellous dye for the hair that lasts for a long time."

Remarks

The treatise mentions that this specific ink variant was described by al-Marrākušī (Muḥammad b. Maymūn b. ‘Imrān al-Marrākušī al-Ḥimyari) in the year 649 Hijri while he was in Baghdad (p. 129, Recipe 10). It is noted for its high permanence, as it is claimed that it will not be cleared out even if put in water for days (p. 129, Recipe 9).