black ink

Ingredients

soot, chimneys

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The black ink was described as being produced from soot (p. 161). The soot was specifically obtained by gathering it from chimneys (p. 161). The student (Ali Dede) was taught by his teacher, Hüseyin Efendi, to manufacture these essential writing materials manually as part of his initiation into religious literacy and manuscript culture during the mid-twentieth century (p. 161).

Evidence

"black ink was made of soot taken from chimneys, for example."

Remarks

The production of black ink from chimney soot represents a localized and practical approach to manuscript production in the rural Alevi villages of East Anatolia (p. 161). This practice was vital for maintaining the secrecy and continuity of Alevi religious knowledge (p. 155). The use of soot-based ink is a common historical practice in Islamic manuscript traditions, here confirmed as part of a twentieth-century living tradition in Turkey (p. 161).