Unfortunately, the chapter containing the recipe and the recipe itself are incomplete. To judge from a later foliation there is only one leaf missing, and it appears that only a small portion of the recipe is wanting. A main point of interest in this recipe is that it describes the making of paper from the bark of fig trees (mudakh), as opposed to hemp or flax, the papermaking fibers that are mentioned in the earlier Ibn Badis work. This piece of information is significant because Chinese paper was made from the bast fiber of paper mulberry, and fig trees belong to the same family. Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from "On the Making of Local Paper. A Thirteenth Century Yemeni Recipe," by Adam Gacek, published in Revue des mondes musulmanes et de la Méditerranée 99-100 (2002). The full article— with facsimiles of the original text in naskh script, an abundance of fascinating footnotes and endnotes, and complete bibliographic references—is available online at http://remmm.revues.org/1175. THE TRANSLATION CHAPTER FIVE On the making of local paper (al-kaghad al-baladi), placing secrets in letters and making erasures in paper codices and on parchments \[1\]—The manner of making local paper. The bast (liber, phloem) of the fig tree is taken and dried. The outer layer is peeled off, and he (the papermaker) throws it away, but the white inner layer is kept. It looks like the fibers of a cord. It (the bast fiber) is soaked (macerated) in fresh (?) water such as (comes from) a pool. It (the pool) is lined with palm leaves used for brooms in order to protect it from dirt and other impurities. The pool is filled with a good quantity of water and on top of the bast are placed palm leaves and, on top of them, small sticks which prevent it and the palm leaves from rising to the surface. The bast is soaked for four days and nights. \[2\]—It is then taken out of the pool, the water is squeezed out of it and it is left in the corner of the house, which is lined with the palm leaves to prevent it from being soiled with dirt, in the form of balls of fiber stacked one on top of the other. It is left thus wet (fermenting), and covered with palm leaves, for not more than three days and nights. For if it were left there in the corner for longer than this, it would be ruined and the palm leaves would break (disintegrate). (After the three days and nights) the bast is taken out of the house and dried thoroughly in the sun, on rocks, or a clean, plastered roof until there is no moisture left in it. Then, for the second time, he (the papermaker) soaks it in water, squeezes (presses) it so that the water comes out and makes it into small balls of fiber \[...\], each ball the size of an orange. He empties the bast fibers into a pitcher-shaped container, one on top of the other, then takes one ball after another and, while they are moist, cleans them from any remaining thick green bast (layer) and other impurities \[...\] attached to them, until no husks or dross remains. The cleaning (of the bast) is done by means of pounding. There is no need to separate it into fibers as the beating separates them, softens them, and makes them blend together. \[3\]—Then, for the second time, (the bast) is dried in the sun in a clean spot or on a piece of cloth so that no dirt or chaff adheres to it and nothing soils it. Once again, for the third time, he (the papermaker) soaks it in water, in a clean container, then squeezes the water out and forms it into small balls, exactly as before. While still wet, he puts it into the container in which it was previously. Then he takes one ball after another out of the container and places each ball \[...\] on a clean stone slab such as is used for pressing. In order to beat the balls, he uses a small mallet made of wild olive or some other wood \[...\], which has two heads and can be lifted with one hand. He continues pounding the balls on the stone until they are flat and become like a wheat dough. Each day, he beats it (the pulp) once and then returns it to the container; this (procedure) is repeated for five days. After the five days, the pulp is emptied from its container onto clean, coarse rocks, and if rocks are not available, he uses a rough millstone. He then sprinkles it with water and kneads it with his hands until everything blends together. \[4\]—Afterwards, he places it (the dough-like mass) in a pool filled with clean water and stirs it so that it is well mixed with water. He strains the pulp (slurry), while stirring the water, so that all coarse fibers come out. He thus gathers one ball of fiber after another and places them in another clean, plastered pool (vat), of a greater length and breadth than the mould, and fills it with clean water. The water should not contain any impurities. He then places all the balls in the vat and beats (stirs) them well with a wooden tool (mikhrash) at the end of which are two crossed pieces of wood, like a churn-staff, so that they are well mixed and become like tufts of puffy fibers teased from cotton. After this, he strains the pulp, for the second time, with a cloth and makes balls of the size of a citron or as he wishes. He places the balls on the edge of the vat and takes one chunk after another, each the size of a lemon or orange, and returns them to the vat. He makes approximately five sheets of paper from one ball. He beats the balls, for the second time, using the mikhrash so that the fine pulp is well mixed with water. \[5\]—Subsequently, he dips a mould into the vat and covers it with a certain amount of pulp until it is level and all the sides of the sheet are even, according to the thickness he desires. When the sheet of paper is levelled in the mould, he has at his side a flat wooden board of the same size as the mould, in terms of length and width, and places it on its (the mould's) left side. He covers the board with a white cloth. And whenever he forms a sheet in the mould, he turns the mould on its face, the side which contains the sheet (i.e., upside down), and rubs it (i.e., the back of the mould) several times with the side of the palm of his hand until the sheet falls off the mould and rests on the cloth-covered board. Whenever he makes a sheet, he places it on top of another, up to a hundred, not more. And when the water in the vat decreases, as a result of drawing it with the mould, he adds more water until the vat is full, because the pulp thickens when there is not enough water. And whenever the (level) of the water goes down, he adds more. \[6\]—When he has finished with all the pulp which was in the vat and the sheets remain stacked one on top of the other, he places a clean cloth on top of the sheets to cover them all. He takes a stone with a level (flat) face (side) and puts it on top of the cloth which covers the paper and he presses with it the sides of the sheets until all the water comes out and they remain only damp. He then lifts the stone and cloth from the paper stack (post) and again separates the sheets into groups of five or so. He puts them out to dry in the sun, on clean rocks, where there is no soil or dirt, and leaves them alone until they contain an insignificant amount of moisture. After that, he lifts the paper off the rocks and once more separates the sheets one by one in a clean spot where there is no clay or soil or husks and places them one above the other, on top of the first wooden board, covered with a clean cloth. Then he again brings out the sheets to dry in the sun, separated into groups of five, until they are completely dry and there is no dampness in them whatsoever. He lifts the sheets up and stacks them all in fives and places on top of the stack (post) a wooden board and a stone to press it down. \[7\]—Subsequently, a quantity of white moist sorghum (dhura), which does not exceed one half of the zabadi al-nafari measure \[a dry measure used for crops; the size of a wooden mug or bowl\] for one hundred sheets, is crushed (ground). It is soaked accordingly until all the husks are eliminated and is gently mashed with a spatula up to seven times. Then it is left in a container until the next day so that it becomes sour. It is then passed (strained) through a coarse cloth until the fine mash comes out of it and it remains (?) \[...\]. The mash is left as it is and it increases in volume (?). It is then cooked until it is well done, just as one cooks starch for glue. Next, it is placed in another receptacle. A cloth, in the shape of a ball and having a handle, is taken. He (the papermaker) places it in a receptacle of paste, takes the paste which adheres to the cloth and with it pastes the front of the sheet, turns it upside down, and smears its back. He does this for all the sheets, recto and verso, in an even way. He stacks the sheets one on top of the other up to twenty or thirty sheets. He then stretches (places) over the pasted sheet a sheet with paste. Then he picks it (them?) up and places it (them?) on a headcloth to dry in the sun on a clean plastered roof. \[8\]—He sticks (attaches) the edges of the sheets onto a plastered area, while the paste is still moist, so that the wind will not carry them away and so that they will not become crinkled and so that the paste which is on them will dry. Thereafter, he takes a sharp cutter \[...\] and cuts the glued edges off the plastered area so that they are easily separated and do not tear \[...\]. After that, he picks up the dry sheets five at a time and burnishes them one at a time on a smooth stone, such as a marble slab, with another smooth and round stone or with a glass bead, or a wooden tablet of the size that the papermaker can handle. He burnishes the sheet lengthwise, back and front, until all sheets are done. Then, he bends a sheet on its front into two halves and holds it by its edges on the left side so that they (edges) do not move. He folds its middle with a burnisher, polishes and folds all sheets and, when finished, places them one on top of the other. Subsequently, he groups them five by five and lays them on their folds underneath a wooden board with a stone on top to press them down for one night after the burnishing. Then he takes \[...?\].
