Ink from Chickpea Soot

Ingredients

chickpea soot, Kufic midad (ink), Gum Arabic, beet water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Take chickpea soot and sift it through a hair sieve. Take two handfuls of it and five dirhams of Kufic midad (ink), ground into a fine powder. Mix it with the soot in a basin or a mortar. Soak some Gum Arabic for a day and a night, then pound it and take its water and clarify it. Take some of the Gum Arabic water and some beet water in equal parts, and pour it over the soot little by little, mixing it with your hand. Once it has gathered, level it on a stone slab and leave it in the shade until it dries. Wipe its surface with a little beet water, then remove it. If the ink was Kufic as I described to you, first pound it and soak it in water as I described to you, and leave it for a day and a night until it settles. Then take the water from it and pour new water over it. Do this for three days until the water comes out clear, and the dregs remain at the bottom; use this with the soot and other ingredients.

Remarks

This recipe involves mixing chickpea soot with Kufic ink, Gum Arabic water, and beet water. The mixture is dried in the shade and wiped with beet water. The Kufic ink is specially prepared by soaking it in water and repeatedly rinsing it.