black, red

Ingredients

sand

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The manuscript displays at least four different inks, with black used for the main text and annotations, and red used for chapter headings and verse markers (p. 70). Although chemical analysis was not performed for this paper, the author notes that some inks exhibit acidic behavior, attacking the paper substrate (p. 70). The scribe utilized a functional 'gold pounce', composed primarily of sand, which was thrown onto the freshly written text as a blotter to prevent smudging and allow for rapid page-turning without waiting for the ink to air-dry (p. 72, 77).

Evidence

"To copy this manuscript, at least four different inks were used. The text (and most of the annotations) is written in black and the separations (story or chapter titles, for example, or the ‘hā’-s of the verses), are in red."

Remarks

The author suggests that the variation in ink shades within both the black and red categories indicates the involvement of multiple individuals or the use of several different batches of ink (p. 70). Comparison with known recipes from the region, such as those in Ibn Bādġs' treatise, suggests the potential presence of carbon inks, metal-gall inks, and mixed formulations (p. 70).