After Tim Barrett introduced me to Islamic-style paper, I decided to undertake a project that would include all of the parts of an Islamic structure: papermaking, dyeing, sizing, burnishing, and binding. For this project I built an Islamic codex that is not a copy of a specific book, but rather a model that integrates parts from many sources. I kept the main features of a typical Islamic codex by employing traditional colors, using established sizing and burnishing techniques, and constructing my own paper pasteboards. I used three main sources to inform my design. I obtained information about fibers and dyes from The Staff of the Scribes and Implements of the Discerning, written around 1025 by Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis.1 I made the paper pasteboards following a description in The Craft of Bookmaking and the Dissolving of Gold (1619) by Abu'l-Abbas Ahmed ibn Muhammed al Sufyani.2 I determined the size of the book and the structure of the binding after consulting The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding (1999) by J. A. Szirmai.3 I used textile-quality hemp fiber from China to prepare pulp for the text block paper. I made the pulp by cooking 700 grams of hemp fiber, pre-cut to 1.5-millimeter lengths, in about 12 liters of water with 50 grams of lime (calcium hydroxide). I left the cooked fiber to cool then beat it in a two-pound Reina beater, equipped with a drum washer. I formed the sheets using a UICB-classroom, Islamic-style 40 x 40-centimeter mould and couched each sheet onto pieces of synthetic interfacing. I pressed the sheets with 50 tons of pressure in a Reina press, and air dried them in pressed packs or "spurs" of about 10 to 12 sheets for three days before I separated and trimmed the sheets to 35 x 20 centimeters. To achieve the traditional colors of reddish yellow and reddish orange, I used turmeric (Curcuma longa) that I purchased at a grocery store and hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) that I brought from Egypt. According to ibn Badis, turmeric was traditionally used in dyeing Islamic paper to get a yellow tint. The red color was derived from sapanwood (Caesalpinia sappan) and safflower (Carthamus tinctorius). I prepared two baths of colors. I simmered 2 liters of water and 200 grams of turmeric for 20 minutes, then strained the solution through cloth, and left it to cool. Separately I did the hibiscus bath the same way. No mordents were used during the cooking or after dyeing. I dipped each sheet first in the turmeric bath; the soaking time ranged from 5 to 10 minutes. The variation of soaking time gave a range of yellow tints. I left the sheets to dry overnight. On the second day I dipped the sheets in the hibiscus solution for 5 to 10 minutes. I was expecting to achieve reddish-yellow and reddish- orange tones, but in addition to these colors I got a surprising spectrum of greens that resulted from the variation of the dipping times in the hibiscus solution. After the sheets dried from the dyeing, I sized each sheet by applying a cooked wheat-starch solution on one side of the sheet using a flat brush, and left them to dry overnight.4 On the second day, I brushed the other sides of the sheets with the wheat-starch solution and left them to dry. Finally, I burnished both sides of each sheet using a UICB-designed burnishing tool. The tool is a slightly rounded rectangular piece of wood that has a groove into which a one-inch diameter glass rod has been glued. The burnishing resulted in a beautiful glaze and brightened colors. Burnishing is a timeconsuming process; each sheet required three to five minutes to be completely burnished. The time varied depending on the amount of wheat starch in the sheet. For the book boards, I used uncooked, raw-flax fiber (Type R flax from Carriage House Paper). I produced the sheets using the same Islamic-style mould and couched and dried the sheets in the same way as the hemp paper. Following al Sufyani's description, I smeared two sheets with starch paste and used my hands to press them together. I left the double-layer sheets to dry, then pasted the laminated sheets together to get an even thicker sheet. Al Sufyani mentions using five, six, or seven layers of paper to make the board, but I had to use twenty double sheets in order to reach the final thickness that I needed. I dried the paper pasteboard in a press between two wooden boards and blotters. I kept changing out the blotters to absorb moisture. Al Sufyani describes leaving the paper pasteboard for half a day or a day; my pasteboards took thirty days to achieve dryness. I based the book size and binding structure on J. A. Szirmai's chapter on Islamic bookbinding in The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Using his description of the eleventh-century Kairouan covers, I chose a vertical format of 16.4 x 12.4 centimeters. I decided to include nine sections with five folios in each section, following the Islamic tradition of using odd numbers in sections and folios. I used a four-sewing-station structure shown in Szirmai's illustrations. I lined the spine and made the headbands according to Jane Greenfield's book Headbands: How to Work Them.5 Finally, I covered the book with leather. When I started this project my goal was to better understand how the Islamic codex is related to the Coptic heritage of bookbinding and how it led to the Western structures that followed it. By making this model step by step I learned about the historical and cultural context for these books, and much more. Spending time with the processes and materials have gone a long way to enhancing my artist-book practice. Some of the discoveries were by accident, for example when the dyeing resulted in unexpected tints. The color has meaning in this structure; the finished sheets document the process of experimenting with dyes and learning to burnish the surfaces. Dyeing and burnishing made each sheet a unique piece; no two are identical. The book is an object that you want to touch and hold, turn the pages, feel their texture, watch their interaction with light, and hear their sound. The author wishes to acknowledge Tim Barrett for his help and support during the entire process of making this model from selecting the fiber to making the paper and boards, and his valuable feedback in the drafting of this article. ___________ notes 1. Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, Umdat al-Kuttab wa ‘Uddat Dhawi al-Albab. Translated by Martin Levey in "Mediaeval Arabic Bookmaking and its Relation to Early Chemistry and Pharmacology." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s., vol. 52, pt. 4 (1962): 5–79. 2. Abu'l-Abbas Ahmed ibn Muhammad al-Sufyani, Sinaat Tasfir al-kutub Wa-Hill al-Dhahab. Translated by Martin Levey in "Mediaeval Arabic Bookmaking and its Relation to Early Chemistry and Pharmacology." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s., vol. 52, pt. 4 (1962): 5–79. 3. J. A. Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding (Aldershot, UK & Brookfield, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing, 1999). 4. To make the starch solution I mixed three tablespoons of wheat starch and two cups of cold water, until there were no lumps. Then I cooked the solution on a stove, whisking continuously until it thickened. I left it to cool before using it. 5. Jane Greenfield, Headbands: How to Work Them (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2008).
