black

Evidence

"The scrap of paper contained within it, now fragmentary, includes nine lines of kufic text in black without diacritical marks or vowels."

Remarks

The scrap of paper (contained in the Tonegawa Collection case) includes kufic text whose materials and means of production indicate a date after the mid-thirteenth century (p. 9). Although appearing hand-written at first glance, closer examination suggests it was produced via block printing, a technology appearing in al-Andalus in the thirteenth century (p. 9). Regularity in line length and darker smudging on the right edge suggest uneven application of ink to a block (p. 9).