Kohl (cosmetics)

Kohl (kuḥl), kajal or kajol is an ancient eye cosmetic, traditionally made by grinding stibnite (Sb2S3) for use similar to that of charcoal in mascara. It is widely used in the Middle East, Caucasus and North Africa, South Asia, West Africa, and the Horn of Africa as eyeliner to contour and/or darken the eyelids and as mascara for the eyelashes. It is worn mostly by women, but also by some men and children. The content of kohl and various ways to prepare it differ based on tradition and country. Several studies have questioned the safety of kohl due to the dangers of lead poisoning. The Arabic name كحل DIN formed the Arabic root , "to apply kohl". Transliteration variants of Arabic dialectal pronunciation include or . The Arabic word cognates with Syriac-Aramaic word כוחלא/ܟܘܚܠܐ . Both words derived from Akkadian meaning stibnite. The English word is a loan of the Arabic word (via Middle Latin and French; originally in the sense "powder of antimony", the modern meaning is from the 18th century). The Persian word for kohl is سرمه , from Azerbaijani sürmə "drawing along", which has led to Bengali and Urdu (সুর্মা, سرمہ) as well as Russian сурьма and Malayalam സുറുമ. In some South Asian languages, the term or is used. The Greek and Latin terms for antimony, stibium, στίβι, στίμμι, were borrowed from the Egyptian name . In Hausa, it is also known as tozali and kwalli. Kohl has been worn traditionally since the Naqada III era (c. 3100 BCE) by Egyptians of all social classes, originally as protection against eye ailments. There was also a belief that darkening around the eyes would protect one from the harsh rays of the sun. Galena eye paint (later termed Kohl in Arabic from the Akkadian word for the cosmetic) was widely applied in Ancient Egypt. Upper eyelids were painted black and lower ones were colored green, as depicted in ancient texts that describe the use of both black galena and green malachite. Ancient graves from the pre-historic Tasian culture point to the early application of galena in Egypt, a custom stretching from as old as the Badarian culture through to Greco-Roman era.