Islamic paper

Evidence

"In fact, in the corpus under study, the paper support used for the majority of the documents contained large amounts of iron and sometimes other metallic elements such as copper, albeit in much smaller amounts."

Remarks

The elemental analysis of the paper supports revealed high levels of iron (Fe) and traces of copper (Cu). This heterogeneity of iron in the paper made the calculation of ink fingerprints challenging, as the support signal must be subtracted from the ink signal (p. 95, 97). XRF spectra for paper (e.g., T-S 8.220) show strong principal emission K-lines of iron at 6.4 keV and 7 keV, which are much weaker in parchment (p. 96). In contrast, parchment shows a higher chlorine (Cl) signal at 2.6 keV due to traditional salting of skins during production (p. 96). Manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) are also detected in paper but show less dispersion than iron and copper (p. 96).