“The big problem with the Fatimid period is that we have a minimal proportion — perhaps one per cent — of what once existed,” said Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, the London-based curator who brought the objects here. “It was systematically destroyed when (Saladin) conquered Cairo in 1169. The evidence of destruction is overwhelming — much of the material was smashed to smithereens. There was prodigious hostility towards the Fatimids by the Sunni conquerors, which means there are all kinds of questions we’ll never be able to answer.”
Ismailimail 