laid paper, wove paper, wire-mesh papers, handmade, machine-made

Ingredients

starch, rosin, egg white, gum tragacanth, casein, hemp, flax, cotton, wood-based fibres

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The paper study reveals that starch sizing was a defining characteristic, appearing in 48% of the 228 samples. Polishing was even more prevalent (64%), often involving proteinaceous coatings such as egg white or casein, or vegetable gums like gum tragacanth (p. 8, 12). Surface polishing was executed to different levels of quality and shine (p. 3). Some specialized construction techniques included the 'Waşşālī method', where two thin paper sheets were glued together on their unpolished sides to create a thicker, more durable support with two polished outer faces (p. 5-6). Fibre furnish analysis identified only bast (hemp/flax), cotton, and wood-based fibres (p. 8). Alum-rosin sizing was found in only ~2% of the collection, typically associated with machine-made papers (p. 1, 6).

Evidence

"Almost half of the samples (110) contain starch, although variation in the reaction to iodine was visible, which could indicate differences in the source and quantity of starch. [...] 64 % are polished. 28 samples are neither polished nor contain starch (~12 %), 90 samples are polished, but do not contain starch, 53 contain starch, but are not polished, and 57 are both polished and contain starch."

Remarks

The study highlights that Islamic papermakers utilized techniques such as surface polishing and starch sizing to make their paper distinct from Indic, Sino-Asian, or European traditions (p. 1). However, from the 17th century on, intensive trade led to significant imports of European paper into Islamic countries, which were then polished or sized locally (p. 1-2). Interestingly, samples containing wood-pulp were mostly not starch-sized, suggesting they were imported from Europe (p. 8). The distribution of DP values peaked at 500–750, indicating significant cellulose degradation potentially due to past storage in high-temperature environments (p. 9).