Islamic-style book with gold silk cover

A few years ago, at Gulf War I took a class in Islamic-style book binding. It was taught by Margavati Bai (who is now a Laurel), from Meridies. A few aspects of the style are particularly appealing: the completed books are lovely, with a wrap-around flap that holds the book shut. The pages were often made of cotton paper (much more economical for the reenactor on a budget). And the covers were often made leather or cloth over pasteboard, rather than leather over wood as was found in European bindings.
When I got home I excitedly mixed up a batch of wheat paste and used it to glue together multiple sheets of cotton resume paper, then dried the sheets between blotter paper and weights to keep them flat.
That was an adventure in itself, and I'll make a separate post about it in the future.

Then I set the dried sheets aside and got sucked into other projects, and forgot all about them.

Until a winter gift exchange paired me with Behiye Bint Kismet, and I realized that a book would be just the thing to give her.

It's a smallish book, big enough to take class notes in but too big for most pockets. All the pages are blank cordon resume paper. The paper I used to make the pasteboard for the covers was ivory, and the inside pages are white. Once it's complete, the pasteboard covers won't show.

The pentagonal front flap is very distinctly in the style of Islamic bindings.

I was relying on the notes  took while in class, and found myself wishing I'd been more specific about exactly how to stitch together the text block. I ended up using a similar method to some limp-bound books I've made before. It held together well enough.

 Completed interior of the book.

 The only book-weight leather I had happened to be pig. This would be inappropriate for an Islamic-style book, so I went with cloth instead. This is a scrap of gold dupioni silk, being turned into book cloth. Step 1: cut an oversize piece of silk, and iron on heavy-duty Wonder Under.

The outside, after application of the Wonder Under. A bit of the adhesive soaked through, but it'll be ok.

 Step 2: flatten out some plain white tissue paper.

Step 3: peel the paper backing off the Wonder Under, and iron the tissue paper to the silk.

I trimmed the newly-made book cloth to size for the cover boards. The gaps are where the spine and front edges of the book will be.

I used modern bookbinder's PVA glue to adhere the silk to the cover pasteboards. Historically fish glue would have been used. But I didn't have any on hand, and I've heard the smell is... unique.

The outside of the cover.

I added more gold silk to the inside of the cover flap. This will open out when the book is complete, and the inside will be visible.

I used a good bit of PVA to adhere the cover to the text block, and let it dry for a few days under a heavy weight to be sure it didn't warp.

I forgot to take any photos of the completed book before I shipped it off, but fortunately Behiye sent me one.