ARTS AND LANGUAGES
-GHALIB'S POETRY DIVAN, IN ITS PAPERBACK EDITION, SYMBOL OF URDU'S LITERARY MAGNIFICENCE
-GOATSKIN BAG PIPES- LIBYAN ZUKRA, TURKISH TULUM, IRANIAN NEY ANBAN, TUNISIAN MIZWID
-CALLIGRAPHER’S PEN BOX
-ROSETTA STONE, ANCIENT EGYPT AS A NODE OF WESTERN and EASTERN LANGUAGES
-THE ARABIC LETTER “SIIN”, USED IN ALGEBRAIC EQUATIONS AS THE “X” VARIABLE, SAID TO COME FROM ABREVIATING THE ARABIC WORD “SHAY’UN” (MEANING “A THING”, IE A QUANTITY TO BE DETERMINED) TO ITS FIRST LETTER “SHIIN” (THEN DROPPING ITS 3 DIACRITICAL DOTS FOR CLARITY, THUS BECOMING “SIIN”)- LESS RELIABLE IS THE STORY THAT “SHIIN” BECAME “X” FIRST IN ANDALUSI MATHEMATICS, WHERE OLD SPANISH WROTE THE “SH” SOUND AS “X”
-LEATHER TOOLED BOOK COVER, SHOWING REVERENCE FOR THE WRITTEN WORD
