Baghdad and Samarra brought political patronage, specialised crafts and intellectual life into new urban settings. Surviving glass and architectural decoration illuminate a history that extends beyond dynastic succession.
The Malay Peninsula’s maritime history was shaped by Asian merchants and sultanates as well as European conquest. Melaka’s capture did not bring the political and commercial world around it to an end.
Safavid Iran connected a new dynastic and religious order with manuscript painting, textiles and urban patronage. Its visual culture belongs alongside Ottoman and Mughal histories, not inside them.
