parchment

Ingredients

parchment, indigo dye

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Countless hours of labor were required for the meticulous preparation of the parchment leaves (p. 96). The parchment was dyed with indigo to achieve a dark blue ground, a technique not attested for parchment before Islam (p. 98).

Evidence

"countless hours of labour must also have gone into the meticulous preparation of the leaves, the execution of the calligraphy and the outline of each letter in brown."

Remarks

The size of the pages and the thick strokes of calligraphy suggest that parchment and gold were used more lavishly than in contemporary purple Bibles (p. 96).