The thirteenth-century occulist Muhammad Ibn Daniyal, said to have occasionally blinded his patients, is remembered both for his tragic optometry and for his comedic shadow puppet plays. A refugee from Mosul, Ibn Daniyal once entertained Sultans and urchins alike in the streets and salons of med..
Anna Della Subin and Hussein Omar

Hussein Omar is pursuing a PhD in the political history of modern Egypt at the University of Oxford.
Anna Della Subin is a New York-based writer and a contributing editor at Bidoun magazine.