Carbon-black ink, iron gall ink, brownish black ink, red ink

Ingredients

Carbon-black, iron gall, Brazil wood, cochineal, vermillion, minium

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

While specific volumetric recipes are not provided in this section of the text, common sources for red inks are cited as Brazil wood, cochineal, vermillion, and minium (p. 18). The text notes that scribes often utilized a combination of carbon-black and iron gall ink types (p. 18). Red ink was regularly used but is noted to be less informative for dating due to the wide availability of these substances (p. 18).

Evidence

"Carbon-black ink was the most common writing substance throughout the larger part of the manuscript period and in most geographical regions, although in the first centuries of Islam iron gall ink appears to have been the medium preferred to write Qur’anic texts. In later times iron gall ink has also been used, but far less frequently. Moreover, scribes have used inks that were a combination of the two ink types."

Remarks

The study observes that carbon-black ink was the predominant writing medium across the Islamic world for the majority of the manuscript period (p. 18). Iron gall ink was specifically preferred for Qur'anic texts during the first centuries of Islam (p. 18). The manuscripts in the Leiden collection are described as a 'scholarly collection' that shows signs of intensive use, transport, and annotation over several centuries (p. 5).