View of pages from the Qur'an of Tipu Sultan. Shows text in the centre, surrounded by gold and blue illumination. Tipu Sultan was the Muslim ruler of Southern India's Mysore province (now part of Karnataka) during the late eighteenth century. Opposed to the British East India Company's attempts to annex Indian territories, he fought their expansion by playing the company off against both the French and the Marathas, before he was killed at the storming of his capital, Seringapatam, by the British in 1799.