Manuscript paper, sizing, polishing and gold-sprinkling

Norah Titley notes that the finest paper in the world was said to come from Samarkand, that Sultan Ali Mashhadi (d. 1520), master of nasta'liq, wrote of its suitability for fine calligraphy, and that vellum continued to be used for Qur'ans some two hundred years after papermaking became known. ¹ Sultan Ali also said no paper was better than Chinese for the calligrapher's ink and for gold, especially coloured paper. ¹

A British Library example is an anthology copied by Sharaf al-Din Husayn, the royal scribe, at Shamakha in 1468 on Chinese paper in indigo, purple, mauve, apricot, sage green, brown and ochre, sprinkled with large flecks of gold. ¹ In the sixteenth century Persian papermakers produced coloured Bukhara paper as a substitute for Chinese, and the finest paper for Shah Tahmasp's manuscripts was made at Tabriz. ³

Sizing was done with egg-white in Iran and with a starch such as rice-water in India and Kashmir; polishing with crystal in Iran, agate in India and onyx in Turkey; gold had to be applied while the sheets were still wet from size and then burnished. ^{3 2} Gold was sprinkled in two ways: through a cloth bag whose mesh set the size of the gold-leaf pieces, or by tapping a brushful of gold paint so as to spatter it. ²

Paper was introduced into India by the Muslims but began to replace palm leaves only in the late fourteenth century; early Mughal paper was probably imported from Tabriz until mills using bamboo, flax, jute or cotton were set up, and Kashmir became famous for its thin white paper. ²