المداد, الأحبار, المداد الأحمر

Ingredients

الأدهان, الليق

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The treatise (ʿUmdat al-Kuttab) contains specialized chapters on ink manufacture. Chapter 7 (الباب السابع) is dedicated to writing with gold, silver, and their substitutes (p. 60). Manuscript No. 159 'Ulum Sina'iya explicitly titles sections on the 'making of inkwell pads (li'q), the description of oils (adhan), and everything a scribe needs' (p. 57). The work generally discusses 'Al-Midad' and 'Al-Hibr' as the primary ink categories used in the 11th century (p. 48).

Evidence

"وهي مخطوطة بخط نسخ قديم مضبوط في بعض المواضع، ومجدول بالمداد الأحمر"

Remarks

The text is an edition of a 11th-century manual by the Zirid ruler Al-Muʿizz ibn Badis. It is one of the oldest and most comprehensive Arabic sources on the technology of the book, covering ink (midad), metallic inks, and paper processing. The editors identify red ink ('al-midad al-ahmar') used for framing text blocks (jadwal) in several analyzed manuscripts from the Dar al-Kutub collection (p. 56, 57).