1. Provides readers with an accessible and entertaining introduction to Islamic art and architecture from the seventh century to the present across most regions of the Islamic world.
2. Engages with modern interpretations of key monuments, objects and buildings, both in the fictional narratives and the scholarly appendix.
3. Allow readers to appreciate the social, cultural, and economic factors that informed the creation of art across the Islamic world.
4. Demonstrate why surveys of Islamic art need to encompass objects made for elite and non-elite audiences.
5. Integrates a fictional presentation of art-historical issues with a scholarly framework that is informed by current scholarship.