"Opener of Doors", One of the 99 names of God

Islamic miniature painting is a great opener of doors to a world of henna art that is the finest ever achieved. This henna is drawn from two Persian manuscripts from the 16th century.  The inscription is copied from the Khamsa of Nizami.  The henna pattern itself is copied from another Persian manuscript, showing the hennaed hand of a Peri. 

If you get out 2 pairs of glasses, and your best magnifying lens, you can see henna patterns from the 10th to 16th centuries represented very accurately in Islamic miniature painting.  Persia, Turkey, Syria and Spain had some astonishingly complex and subtle henna during the Medieval period .  The women who did these hennaes were some of the finest henna artists in the history of the art.   This, except for the inscription I added from the Khmasa, is a copy of one of those Medieval Safavid Persian hennaes. 

I've not found any patterned henna represented in Indian art before the middle of  18th century, and no very  elaborate Indian henna before the 19th century.  However, there are several miniature paintings from the era of Nur Jahan, that clearly show Indian women together in the harem with Persian women ... and the Persian women have patterned henna, whereas the Indian women only have dipped fingertips.  The Persians were also very fond of blacked henna work, which is a little more of a technical challenge to achieve.  One could conclude, then, that the patterned henna passed into India from Persian influence during the Mughal presence in India, and was slowly adopted as an Indian art during the Rajput and Colonial eras.  There  was certainly henna in India before that, back to at least 400 BCE, but only present  as dipped henna, not henna done in intricate  patterns. 
 

The Eucalyptus Question

This henna was done as a  trial of whether or not eucalyptus makes any difference in the result of henna.  I mixed a batch of Jamila henna with just lemon juice, and let the paste rest for dye release.  I split the batch in two, and mixed 1/2 teaspoon of eucalyptus oil into 2 tablespoons of henna paste, and left the rest of the paste  plain.  I put the euc'ed and non-euc'ed  into separate cones, and labeled them.    I applied the eucalyptus henna on 2 fingers, and plain henna on 2 others.  In the palm, I did the straight lines and vines with the eucalyptus henna, and the leaves and curleycues with plain henna. The words were done in plain henna.   The henna was sprayed with New Skin at about 1pm on Friday, and wrapped while I took a nap until 4:30.  The room temperature was about 70F.  I unwrapped after that but left the henna on, and steamed the NS'd henna every half hour over the tea kettle until 10 pm.  I wiped and picked off most of the henna between 10 and 11pm.  When I woke up at 9am the next morning, I steamed and scraped off the last of the henna and nearly all the NS.  This picture was taken about 11am, ( 22 hours after the henna application was finished and wrapped) with a little NS still clinging. 

At 36 hours after application,  I can't see any difference in resulting color between the eucalyptus and non-eucalyptus henna.   The henna  darkened a great deal more than at the time of this photograph , but there was still no visible difference between the eucalyptus henna and the plain henna.   At 72 hours after application, the eucalyptus henna, IN SOME PLACES, was darker than the plain henna, appearing to be oxidized at a slightly deeper layer than the plain henna.  Eucalyptus may then have a similar effect as camphor in this regard.  At one week after application, the colors were the same again, so the oxidation did not go very deep.  

Three  weeks later, the eucalyptus henna and the plain henna disappeared on the  same day, so eucalyptus did not extend the longevity of the stain. 

The henna on this hand was done with Jamila henna, and applied with a carrot bag.  Carrot bags and Jamila henna are available from Castle Art and Imports.  Jamila henna is also available fromMendhi Muse. 

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