Court de Gebelin - how does he do it?
You know how CdeG said the real origin of the word 'tarot' was 'Tarosh' and that it came from Egypt... well how about this...
"How many times has my hand written, by tarsh of tin, Syriac followed by the language of phylacteries.." Sadi al-Hilli (14thC)
and this, even earlier:
Among us, without publicity or boasting, is the engraver of tarsh..
Abu Dulaf al-Kharraj (10thC)
- sorry, still haven't worked out how to make diacritics appear on forum posts.
Both these quotations are given in an article written way back in 1987. Can't think how I've overlooked it till now.
JSTOR article, but anyone with access - just google the phrase "Medieval Arabic tarsh"
I quote the abstract for others:
[These] verses suggest that unethical ... peddlers printed amulets [apotropaic objects] from wooden blocks and cast-tin plates to seel to naive buyers who thought they were getting handwritten [ones]. This is the likely origin of printed amulets identified in various collections since the 1890w. If the tarsh...were indeed print-blocks ... the locus of printing technology among the Banu Sasan "underworld" would probably explain the lack of broader influence...
Article by Richard Bulliet, Columbia University.
Now - I'm trying to find out more about this technique of rubbing a figure from a tin-type form. See if it is documented in Europe. I imagine the forms would be a bit like those German biscuit-forms, medieval ones often showing figures of saints - but maybe flatter if for rubbing off onto paper.
Anyone know about this printing technique? Or about the eastern 'tarsh'?
WHERE did de Gebelin get so much information - he continually astonishes me... when he isn't making me gnash my teeth at him.