During the 16th century, a growing interest for the Islamic world led to an effort by West­erners in acquiring Arabic man­u­scripts. The text of the Qur’an is among those which most inter­ested Western scholars, but the acqui­sition of Qur’anic man­u­scripts in an Islamic country was at the same time prob­lematic for a West­erner. This is the reason why many of the Qur’anic man­u­scripts which entered European col­lec­tions during the 16th century are spoils of war, taken on the bat­tle­field. For this reason, Charles V’s expe­dition in Tunis in 1535 is of special impor­tance since the capture of a major Islamic city gave the pos­si­bility to have access to higher quality copies. For the first time, I intend to offer an inventory and an analysis of the various Qur’anic copies which were taken as booty during this expe­dition and which have been pre­served up to date. I shall also examine how they were inte­grated into Western libraries and even­tually helped the devel­opment of Arabic studies in 16th century Europe.