local paper (al-kaghād al-baladī)

Ingredients

inner bark (liᄥāʾ) of the fig tree (mudakh), fresh water, sorghum starch

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The outer layers of the fig tree (mudakh) are peeled off and discarded. The remaining inner bark (liᄥāʾ) fibers are soaked for several days in fresh water, fermented, dried in the sun, soaked, cleaned, pounded, dried, soaked again, drained, and squeezed into balls. These moist balls are beaten for 5 days with a mallet until they reach a consistency like wheat dough. The mass is sprinkled with water, kneaded, and mixed in a vat of water. A one-piece mold is dipped in the vat to form sheets (pp. 58-59). The paper was sized with starch made from sorghum in Yemen (p. 62).

Evidence

"A thirteenth-century Yemeni recipe for making local paper (al-kaghād al-baladī) also ignores rags and states that it was made from the white fibers of the inner bark (liᄥāʾ) of the fig tree (mudakh)."

Remarks

This recipe is notable for its exclusion of rags, focusing instead on bast fibers from the fig tree (p. 58). Sheets were released immediately from the one-piece mold after formation (p. 59).