Page with calligraphy, Sura 20:4-8 of the Qur'an

Calligraphers often demonstrated their skills by writing different styles and sizes of Arabic script on rectangular sheets of paper, which were then illuminated, mounted on pasteboard with colored and marbled papers, and assembled into accordion fold albums, known as muraqqaʿ. Calligraphic exercises were often made in the style of a particular master. This calligraphic panel dates from the late 13th-14th century and is in the style of the famous calligrapher, Yāqūt al-Musta‘ṣimī (d.1298), who lived in Baghdad and survived the fall of the city to the Mongols in 1258. Yāqūt  is most well-known for perfecting the "proportioned script," in which letters are measured using a system of dots and circles. This calligraphic exercise containing Sura 20:4-8 of the Qur'an was written using the muhaqqaq style for the large script and the naskh style for the small script.