organic pigments, particularly various types of soot

Ingredients

soot, burned seeds, nuts, tar, bitumen, gum resins, honey, alum

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The eleventh-century Arabic treatise on bookbinding by Muizz ibn Badis, titled Staff of the Scribes (c.1025), outlines ink production focusing on organic colorants. The primary pigments were various types of soot derived from the combustion of seeds, nuts, tar, and bitumen (p. 314). These carbon sources were combined with adhesives that acted as vehicles or levigating agents, essential for preparing the pigments and ensuring the binding of the ink to the paper surface. Honey was specifically noted as an additive in ink-making to improve viscosity and effectiveness (p. 308). Alum was also employed as a mordant to assist in the adherence of ink to paper (p. 308).

Evidence

"the recipes for inks in the book-making treatise focused more on adhesives as vehicles or levigating agents for preparing pigments and binding ink to paper, and on organic pigments, particularly various types of soot obtained from burned seeds, nuts, tar, and bitumen"

Remarks

The research highlights a significant continuity in material culture between the ancient world and the medieval Islamic period. The study notes that gum resins (including tree-sap balsam, pine pitch, and gum tragacanth) were collectively mentioned in 188 of the 553 arts recipes surveyed and served as primary adhesives for ink (p. 313). Honey's role as a binder and viscosity enhancer in ink recipes is emphasized, appearing across all eight sources studied (p. 308, 313). The transition from medicinal to artistic use of these materials suggests a shared 'panoply of early industrial materials' (p. 312).