Foreword / Fionnuala Croke -- Author's acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Notes to the reader. Part 1 Introducing the manuscript : The manuscript in brief -- A manuscript in need of repair -- How many ruzbihans? -- The historical and art historical context in brief. Part 2 Writing the words of God : The writing surface -- The layout and decoration of the text -- Edge notes and the copying of the text -- Types of script -- Muhaqqaq -- Thulth -- Naskh -- Display scripts -- The spacing of the text: problems and solutions -- Omissions and the irregular placement of text -- Omissions of text from lines of Naskh -- The placement of letters in vertical side panels -- Omissions of text from lines of Muhaqqaq and Thulth -- Omissions of text in earlier Qur'an manuscripts -- Errors and corrections -- The calligrapher -- Ruzbihan's colophon -- Ruzbihan's name. Part 3 Reading and reciting the words of God : Variant readings of teh Qur'an: Hafs and Shu'ba -- Waqf and ibtida (pausing and starting) -- Divisions of the text -- Verse markers : Small-scale script (naskh) markers -- Large-scale script (muhaqqaq-thulth) markers -- Five- and ten-verse marginal devices -- Juz', Nisf al-Juz' and Hizb -- Sajda. Part 4 Decorating the words of God I : Beginning, middle and end illuminations : The beginning -- The middle -- The end, as it is today -- The end, as it was in the sixteenth century -- Khatm prayers and Falnamas in other sixteenth-century Qur'ans -- Vertical side panels : Vertical side panes with multi-coloured blossoms -- Vertical side panels with "stencilled-type" blossoms -- Sura headings and other related panels : Standard gold-ground headings -- Groups of headings based on types of cartouche : Cartouches derived from the cloud collar -- Cartouches with concavely curved ends -- Simple, lobed cartouches -- Other cartouche types -- A change in aesthetic : Script decoration -- Vertical side panels -- Sura headings -- Pigments and palette -- The layout of the openings. Part 5 Decorating the words of God II : Frames : Text area frames -- Vertical side panel frames -- Sura heading frames -- Frames of the beginning, middle, and end illuminations -- Frames of major deocorative elements -- Rays -- Individual motifs : Blossoms, buds and leaves : The lotus and other multi-coloured blossoms -- The lotus: an overview of sixteenth-century Shiraz types -- The lotus and other monochrome, stencilled-type blossoms -- Palettes -- Cloud bands -- Squiggles and eyes -- The manipulation of gold -- Investigating the palette of the Ruzbihan Qur'an / Kristine Rose Beers -- The manuscript's binding : The original, sixteenth-century binding -- The nineteenth-century binding. Part 6 Concluding remarks : Situating the Ruzbihan Qur'an -- From Shiraz to Dublin. Par 7 Appendices : Dimensions and other codicological details of CBL Is 1558 -- Manuscripts with colophons signed by the calligrapher Ruzbihan Muhammas al-Tab'i al-Shirazi -- Sixteenth-century Qur'ans and other manuscripts relevant to the study of Chester Beatty's Ruzbihan Qur'an (CBL Is 1558) -- The Arabic alphabet and numerals -- Waqf (recitation) signs used in the Ruzbihan Qur'an -- Material analysis of the Ruzbihan Qur'an: table of analytical findings -- Illuminated "lookalikes": CBL Is 1558 and a Shamsa and frontispiece in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery -- Manuscripts with illuminations signed by or attributed to an individual named Ruzbihan -- Concordance of manuscript and folio numbers with figure, plate and page numbers. Bibliography of works cited.