Illuminated manuscript Qur’an with a binding which matches its decorated leather satchel. This ‘travelling Qur’an’ may have been acquired with the archives of colonial governor Sir Hesketh Bell (1864-1952). During a tour of the Southern Provinces of Northern Nigeria in May 1910, Bell wrote that the Emir of Bida ‘offered him a Nupe sword in a silver scabbard and that nearly all the Chiefs offered presents, including a Qur’an enclosed in a handsome leather case, the book beautifully illuminated by local Malams’.