black ink

Ingredients

gallnut, vitriol, gum arabic, pure water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The text describes several types of black ink. One common recipe includes: 'Take thirty gallnuts, crush them, and pour on them three pints of pure water, and cook it over a gentle fire until it decreases by half, then strain it and put in it vitriol the weight of five dirhams, and gum arabic weighing ten dirhams, and put it in the sun for ten days, and write with it' (p. 230). The author differentiates between inks used immediately and those suited for long-term storage or travelers (p. 228).

Evidence

"The materials which are commonly used in ink-making are gallnut, vitriol and gum arabic. . . seven ink recipes for common use and eleven invisible ink recipes. . . Although coloured inks were used at that time, the included recipes are only for making black ink."

Remarks

The treatise Zīnat al-Katabah by al-Rāzī (d. 313/925) is one of the oldest known treatises on Arabic bookmaking (p. 223). The manuscript studied (Majāmī Tal'at 331) is a 1502 CE copy of the original 10th-century text. The treatise covers eighteen total ink recipes, with seven for standard black ink and eleven for invisible inks. It also mentions a pad called the līqah, usually made of wool, used to absorb ink in the inkwell (p. 228). Red ink is used in the manuscript for headings and paragraph overlining (p. 227).