Grand-dad's attic / Riz Ahmed -- The journey / Pankaj Mishra -- The book of fixed stars / Tash Aw --The potter's mark / Philip Hensher -- Notes on a leaf / Kamila Shamsie -- Symmetry : nature's language / Marcus du Sautoy -- The silver vase / Oliver Watson -- Choosing our fate / Slavoj Zizek --"St Jerome" as the representation of melancholy / Jabbour al-Douaihy -- Reflections on a Mughal portrait / Eric Hobsbawm -- An Andalusian penbox / Radwa Ashour -- Laila and the Majnoun / Ghassan Zaqtan -- Aniconsim, women hunters and men's jewellery / Saud Amiry -- Infinity's watchman / Bejan Matur -- "St Jerome" by Farrukh Beg / Raja Shehadeh -- The Cinderella astrolabe / Jameel al-Khalili -- The divine flaw / Jamal Mahjoub -- The shroud of St Lazarus : a text / Najwa Barakat -- Heart of empire / Sonia Jabbar -- Some mother's son / Shirin Neshat -- The nightmare of the translator / Anton Shammas -- "St Jerome" / Adam Foulds -- A great carpet fragment and a great carpet / James Fenton -- Parable of the tughra and the mobile phone / Youssef Rakha -- The coronation portrait / William Dalrymple -- Glass document holder / Sarah Maguire -- MIA and the memory of Ibn Tulun / Nasser Rabbat.