Page from a Qur'an manuscript

With elegant calligraphy in Arabic, this page begins chapter 11 (“Hud”) of the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an. Each of the Qur’an’s 114 chapters (sura) is denoted by an elaborately decorated heading, which gives the chapter’s name, the place of its revelation (in Mecca or Medina), and its number of verses. The formula basmala—“In the name of Allah [God], the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”—begins all but one sura and is the first line on this page. The remaining lines here include the first of Hud’s 123 verses. The verse’s end is marked by a stop, here a gold rosette.