[SetBuilder]

Originally Posted by steve B

That is apparently a matter of some debate.

Not a great source, but there are other letters out there, and at least according to the supposed translation this is among the known ones. The picture shown isn't a match to the fragement shown in the auction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhamm...heads_of_state


There is a long scholarly work that would indicate that all these letters were discovered within the last 200 years, and that they are probably old forgeries.

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q...mmad-authentic


If it is actually a few centuries old, the ink not fading doesn't surprise me. It would have been carbon(Maybe charcoal? ) mixed with some sort of binder. That's been used for millennia, and is still made. http://www.winsornewton.com/uk/disco...-on-indian-ink

India ink is one of the most ancient ink recipes and has been around for over 2,000 years. If anyone were to discover an ancient scroll from the days of the Roman Empire, it would probably have been written with India ink. It doesn't oxidize and eat into the paper like iron based inks.