The romance of the Middle East, once called the Near East, has long been a source of fascination to me. My first memories are of a children’s version of The Arabian Nights published in the early 1900s by Blackie and Co. 1 It had evocative illustrations by Helen Stratton, some including architectural allegories. The visual imagery of the stories, combined with the illustrations, were the most exotic images of my childhood. As I did not make any distinction between Persian and Arabic culture, neither did most people fascinated by the Near East. An illustrated Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam was a vivid childhood memory, as were visits to Luna Park.
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