#harqus

All about Harqus! (Or is it harquus? Or hargous? Or...)

I’ve seen some posts floating around on tumblr so I thought I’d address this issue... What is harqus? Who used it? What did it look like? And most importantly, how do you spell it? Check out the article, with lots of pictures and a special focus on harqus in the Jewish community!

Ḥarqus is essentially a gall ink, made from the tannic acid of oak galls and iron or copper sulfate, which produces a intensely deep black ink, lasting for a few days on living skin and permanent on parchment (a very similar ink is used in Jewish communities to this day for writing Torah scrolls). It was (and is still) used throughout the Maghreb, mainly Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia for decorating faces and hands. When made at home, poorer women sometimes used just a simple mixture of soot and oil, but ‘professional’ recipes for ḥarqus show the variety of organic and non-organic ingredients.