The word muraqqa‘ means ‘album’, and it comes from an Arabic root word meaning ‘to patch’. Albums were like patchwork, where the work of various calligraphers and painters of different ages were collected and mounted together for the viewing pleasure of their owners. It is not known when the idea of compiling an album first arose in the Islamic world. The earliest surviving examples are from the 15th century. This album, probably assembled in the 19th century, contains 40 folios or pages in varying examples of Arabic scripts such as nasta‘liq, shikasteh, and naskh. Basically all folios are written in ink on paper. Most of the pages of the calligraphy probably came from the Persia.
