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verdigris and the pistachio.
There are two grades of the red ruby. One is of a very high grade and
is popular among people. The second grade is very inferior which no one likes. The best grade is that of the 'uinmani kind, followed by the bahramani, arghaivani, lahrni, gulnari and wardi kinds. Some authors have also mentioned the banafshi, a kind between the arghawani and lahmi kinds. But people in general do not distinguish between the arghaivani and lahmi kinds. The grades we have mentioned are by way of similitude. Each country and nation has its own names for these grades. Some have held that the rummani (pomegranate — like) and the bahraniani (safflower-like) varieties are identical. But the people of "Iraq
use the name, rummani, while the people of the Persian 'Iraq and Khurasan call it bahraniani. Al-Kindi's arrangement of the grades testifies to the latter designation, as he regards the bahraniani kind as the best. It has been said about the pomegranate-like colour of the ruby that,
if scarlet blood is sprinkled and spread over a clean piece of silver, the resultant coloration would be like that of the pomegranate-coloured ruby. Scarlet blood is that which is temperate and healthy and besides, flows in the veins. The blood of the right ventricle is scarlet. Al-Kindi has described the wardi (rose-coloured) variety first. It is
rose-coloured with a little whiteness, but he has accorded preference to the khayri (Hollyhock-hued) kind over the wardi. Above this is the ahmar 'usfuri (red saffron-coloured) kind which has the colour of bright saffron with a tinge of yellow. Then there is the bahraniani 'usfuri kind which is pure, and is devoid of any starchy colour. The yellow kind becomes progressively precious as the red colour becomes dominant until it reaches full redness. This is the bahraniani kind. All these stones possess different characteristics with respect to brightness of the colour, clarity, glitter, sheen, reflection, and purity from blemishes, and their prices go up according to these characteristics. Nasr, while enumerating these kinds, says, "The wardi mushamma'
(waxed red) is the kind that is clear, glittering and rosy. The fourth kind is the jamri, which is bright like a cinder. I am inclined to believe that the khayri variety mentioned in Al-Kindi's book is actually jamri which is bright like a cinder, and the copyist has made an error (God is the Knower). The rummani kind is the one that ranges between the wardi And. jamri kinds. Bahraman means the saffron, e.g., thaubbahram, that is, cloth dyed
with saffron. The glitter which we speak of in connexion with the ruby is not saffron's lustre, as it is pale, and dry like flesh but that colour which is assumed by a liquid which has had its starch leached out, and which is the first fermented drink made from that liquor. Anything |
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