sizing, pasteboards

Ingredients

wheat starch (nashan), rice starch, sorghum starch, fish glue (ghirāʾ al-samak), ground alum (al-shabb al-Yamānī), sour milk (laban), asphodel (ashrās), absinthe (afsintīn, ifsantīn), wormwood, roots of colocynth (ʿalqam), aloe (sabir, sabr)

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Wheat, rice or sorghum starch were the usual pastes used for sizing paper (p. 7). A specific recipe for preventing moisture attraction involves ground alum (crystallized salt) (al-shabb al-Yamani) mixed with sour milk (laban) used before sizing (p. 7). Starch made of wheat (nashan) and asphodel (ashras) served as the primary adhesive for creating pasteboards and affixing leather to the boards (p. 7). Adhesives were prepared by cooking in water or an infusion of botanical purgatives such as absinthe/wormwood, colocynth roots, or aloe (p. 7).

Evidence

"Wheat, rice or sorghum starch were the usual pastes used for sizing → paper, although fish glue ( ghirāʾ al-samak) was also used... one anonymous source gives a recipe for a paste made of ground alum (crystallized salt) (al-shabb al-Yamānī) mixed with sour milk (laban) used before sizing to prevent paper from attracting moisture... Starch made of wheat (nashan) and asphodel (ashrās) was the main type of adhesive used for making pasteboards... Pastes were cooked in water or in an infusion of absinthe... root of colocynth... or aloe... good protection against worms."

Remarks

Sizing was essential for paper preparation in the Islamic manuscript tradition. The addition of alum and milk helped control moisture, while bitter botanical infusions (absinthe, colocynth) were explicitly intended to deter worms and insects (p. 7).