black or brown

Ingredients

tannins

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

While the recipe is not directly extracted from the ink analysis itself, the author references the structured typology of inks in Al-Marrakusi's text (p. 104). Inks are divided into liquid (Chapter 1) and solid (Chapter 2). Liquid iron gall inks (hibr) are categorized by the technique used to obtain tannins: 'sun inks' produced via maceration and fermentation, 'fire inks' produced via decoction, and 'shade inks' using maceration only (p. 104). Most recipes assume gall nuts are the primary source, but provide practical alternatives.

Evidence

"usually only two colours are used in the text: black or brown for the main text, and red or purple for the titles, important words and highlights (which are marked by a line above the text)."

Remarks

In the examined corpus, when only one color was used, a pen with a larger nib was employed to emphasize sections and highlights instead of a second color (p. 106). Decorative elements in the manuscripts are simple, consisting of dots, circles, and drop-shaped drawings, mostly used to mark the end of sections or sentences (p. 106). The script style generally features a standardized appearance with a regular one-column text block (p. 106).