yellow myrobalan (halīlaj aṣfar)

Ingredients

yellow myrobalan (halīlaj aṣfar), fresh water, gum arabic, vitriol

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Take yellow myrobalan, grind it, and add three raṭl of fresh water. Cook in a casserole over low fire. The test for readiness is writing on parchment to see if it produces a red color. Add one quarter raṭl of pounded gum arabic and one ounce of vitriol. Stir until dissolved, then squeeze the mixture similarly to the method used for paper ink extract (p. 311).

Evidence

"Take some yellow myrobalan, grind it, add three raṭl of fresh water, put it in a casserole... and let it cook slowly over a low fire; and the sign that it is cooked is that you can write with it on the parchment, and the writing will be red. Then add one quarter raṭl of pounded gum arabic to it, and one ounce of vitriol, and stir it gently."

Remarks

This recipe is part of a small collection of recipes for luxury copies attached to a work on Qur'anic orthography (p. 306-307). The copyist, Ibrāhīm ibn Ayyūb al-Balāsī, included these to provide an essential guide to inks suitable for luxury manuscripts (p. 309).