dark red anemone

Ingredients

dark red anemone, gum arabic, ground gall nuts, albumen, burned papyrus rests, extract of chard

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The preparation starts by placing dark red anemones in a thin Syrian or Maghribi bottle (p. 128). This bottle is buried in humid dung (sirqin or sirfin), which must be replaced with fresh wet manure every three days until the anemones melt and liquefy (pp. 128-129). The liquid is then usable for writing and is resistant to fading even in water (p. 129). To improve visual quality, powdered gum arabic is added to make it bright and shiny (p. 129). An alternative method involves mixing the solution with burned papyrus residue and drying it in the shadow (pp. 129-130). A final refined version of the recipe calls for mixing one dirham of the dried residue with one dirham of gum arabic solution and half a dirham of ground gall nuts, mashed together with albumen to form small balls or 'nuts' (p. 130). These are later dissolved in chard extract when needed (p. 130).

Evidence

"An ink that doesn’t fade and whose traces don’t disappear; if you want, write, and it will not fade on the papyrus, or paper, or other material; it is also a dye for the hair."

Remarks

The treatise highlights that this ink remains stable on various substrates including papyrus, paper, and parchment (p. 127). The author al-Marrakusi (Muhammad b. Maymun b. 'Imran al-Marrakusi al-Himyari) is cited as adding this specific chapter in Baghdad in 649 AH (p. 129). The dung used for the chemical transformation is described with several names such as 'the bowels of the horse' or 'the unstable fire' (p. 128). The ink also serves as a long-lasting hair dye (p. 127).