Islamic tradition requires the respectful treatment of any written form of the word of God, and especially Qur’an manuscripts, even after they fall into disuse or disrepair. Sometime before the modern era, early manuscripts of the Qur’an that were no longer serviceable were removed to specially designated places at certain mosques, where they continued to deteriorate. The contents of several such caches were sold piecemeal on the art market following their rediscovery in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in connection with the burgeoning interest in collecting Islamic art. This page, and several other examples in the collection (eg. M.73.5.511), probably emerged from such a cache.