Section from a Koran written in Muhaqqaq, with later leather binding

With only three lines of dense and powerful Muhaqqaq on each page, this volume came from a Koran that originally consisted of 105 sections. The paper, the distinctive script, and the illuminations indicate that this Koran was made in one of the Indian sultanates. A waqf inscription in the front of the book states that it was a gift to the Mamluk sultan Nasir al-Din Muhammad, who ruled in three periods between 1293 and 1341.

There were close commercial ties between the Muslim states in western India and Egypt, and Indian goods reached Europe primarily through Egyptian ports. Nasir al-Din promoted this trade by having a canal dug from the Red Sea to Alexandria.