Sameer Rahim is arts and books editor of Prospect

Layli and Qays at school from the Khamsa of Nezami Ganjavi (f. 196b from Or. 6180)
Courtyard facade of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus (1862), Francis Bedford.
Qajar #19 (1998), Shadi Ghadirian.
The reconstructed ‘rose window’ at the archaeological site of Khirbat al-Mafjar (Hisham’s Palace), near Jericho (photo: 2017). Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
‘The Prophet Muhammad encounters the angel of half-fire and half-snow’, miniature from a copy of al-Sarai’s Nahj al-Faradis (c. 1465), Herat.
Map of the world from 'The Book of Curiosities' (MS Arab c. 90), copy from c. 1200, Egypt, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
The mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun, Cairo, built in the 9th century.
Detail of a scroll drawing showing the ten avatars of Vishnu, c. 1771–79, Andhra Pradesh, India. © Victoria and Albert Museum