For Muslims, the Qur’an is the revealed word of God, a text preserved in a heavenly tablet since the time before creation. Manuscripts of the Qur’an are considered sacred embodiments of the divine text. In the first centuries of Islam, the pious act of transcribing the Qur’an was specifically entrusted to calligraphers esteemed for their religious knowledge, whereas in later times wealthy patrons commissioned expensive deluxe Qur’an manuscripts, such as this lavishly illuminated example from sixteenth-century Iran, as a demonstration of their faith.