soot

Ingredients

linseed oil, soot, ashes from Hejazi charcoal, Arabic gum, barley flour, ash water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Linseed Oil-based ink, the finest of all inks: Its recipe: about ten pounds of linseed oil of good quality is taken, more or less, and to be put it in a lamp with four wicks. [The lamp] is covered [page 6v] with a vessel-like oven with a hole in the top, and above it a second vessels with a hole, up to seven vessels like a chimney. Wicks are lighted and they are leaved until the oil is consumed. Then, the soot is collected that has risen into the vessels using a feather. Afterward, the needed an amount of ashes from Hejazi [a type] charcoal are taken, sifted through a fine sieve, and placed in a strong linen pouch. Twice as much water from a well is poured over it and it is boiled until it reduces by half. It is strained and the residue is discarded, letting the water sit to clear for a day and night. After filtering, some Arabic gum is dissolved in the previously mentioned ratio, with five ounces of water to one ounce of gum. The soot collected from the vessels is added and it is kneaded like dough. [Then] it is placed it in a stone mortar, and barley flour is added to it. A paste of ash water is boiled and applied to paper and [then] it is placed in the oven until it burns, and it is lifted, and fifty dirhams’ worth are scraped off from it. If what is in the vessel is the size of an ounce, and it is added to what is in the vessel, and it is pounded until it has a smell like the smell of wine. Every time it dries, give it water in which the gum has been dissolved to drink, then increase the pounding until the smell disappears and a shine appears to it, and it is lifted [page 7r] and put into a wide copper vessel, and the water in which the ashes were boiled is poured over it. It is rubbed with the hand until it dissolves, and you add more water to it until you like its colour, and a large amount of ink comes out. [Then] it is stored in glass [containers], and it is used after a week, and God knows best. (p. 9)

Evidence

"Linseed Oil-based ink, the finest of all inks... Some of these recipes have been empirically tested in the laboratory. The results show that the standards are remarkably accurate."

Remarks

The manuscript Nabdha Latifa Fá Elm al-Ketaba Wa al-’Hbār contains 10 different recipes for black ink. This linseed oil-based variety is highlighted as superior. The use of ashes from Hejazi charcoal and well water are specific regional requirements. (p. 9). The linguistic structure and the inclusion of regional plants like Balīḥah and natron salt confirm an Egyptian provenance. (p. 10).