Blog

Baghdad · Iraq

Where Is Agrabah? The City Disney Assembled From Real Places

Agrabah was going to be Baghdad. A war made it fictional — and then Disney built it back out of real places, from a tomb in Agra to a valley in Jordan that usually plays Mars.

The Sultan's palace where Princess Jasmine feels trapped has the silhouette of the Taj Mahal — which is not a palace at all, but a tomb. That is how Agrabah works. Disney's fairy-tale city was going to be Baghdad, until the Gulf War made the name impossible; the studio invented a place that could not be found on a map, then quietly rebuilt it out of real ones — Isfahan and Agra, Marrakesh and Mandalay, a Jordanian desert that has played both Arabia and Mars.

Why Old Sana'a Builds Upward

The tower houses of Old Sana'a rise five to nine storeys of stone and mud — and the usual reasons, defence and lack of space, are both too small.

In one of the oldest cities on earth, families live stacked from the animals on the ground floor to the poetry room at the top, in mud towers nine storeys high. Why Sana'a built vertically has half a dozen answers, heat least of all — and the system that raised the towers is the same one now dissolving them.

Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates

The Word for Beautiful Was the Word for Moon

The moon has been the measure of a beautiful face in Arabic verse for fifteen centuries — but beauty was only one of the things that light was ever asked to carry. A history of one disc, from a pre-Islamic ode to a glowing sphere over an Abu Dhabi harbour.

Ya qamar — you moon — is the oldest compliment in Arabic, and almost nothing about it means what we assume. The moon it praised was not always a woman, not always even a kindness, and in the end not only about beauty at all.

Cairo · Egypt

The House Whose Famous Guests All Moved Out

When Tutankhamun's mask left Cairo's Egyptian Museum for the Grand Egyptian Museum, it took the crowds with it — but not the collection. What remains in the old building on Tahrir Square turns out to be a stranger and more interesting museum than the one that emptied.

For most of a century, the golden mask of Tutankhamun stood behind glass on the upper floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In October 2025 it was driven out to Giza, and it was not the only thing to go: the royal mummies, the whole Tutankhamun collection, tens of thousands of objects have left the old museum for Egypt's gleaming new institutions.

The Desert That Was Written Over

Twenty-five thousand ancient inscriptions, one British officer, and a Hollywood desert filmed largely in Spain — how Wadi Rum keeps being renamed by whoever holds the power to make it visible.

The rock at the entrance is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, after a book that never named it. Beneath the film legend lies a landscape covered in older writing almost nobody stops to read.

Damascus · Syria

The Real Aladdin: The Story That Belonged to No Country

Aladdin has no Arabic manuscript older than its French translation. Behind the gap stands a young man from Aleppo, catalogued for a century as anonymous.

The most famous "Arabian" tale in the world is missing from the oldest Arabic manuscript of the Thousand and One Nights — because before a French translator wrote it down in Paris, there was no manuscript of it to be missing from.

Commission Agreements for Artists

Scope, deposits, copyright, delivery and cancellation: the key clauses you lock into writing before any studio work starts

Map the clauses in an art commission agreement before you stretch a canvas: brief and revision limits, deposits and kill fees, title versus copyright, delivery, acceptance and exit ramps. Educational overview from union and arts-law templates. Not legal advice; pricing method sits in the sibling guide.

How to Sign and Number an Edition

Pencil layout, fraction numbering and AP/HC/PP marks so every impression in your limited edition reads as authorised studio practice

Sign and number limited edition prints with standard pencil placement: edition fraction left, optional title centre, signature right. Covers AP, HC, PP and BAT marks, 2H pencil habits, full-bleed and verso signing, workshop chops, a materials table, professional studio practice, costs and when to bring in a master printer or publisher.

How to Apply for an Open Call

Eligibility, proposals, portals and fee warnings for artists applying to residencies, prizes and exhibition open calls

An art open call application succeeds when you match eligibility, follow file rules, and write a clear proposal for that programme. This guide covers how to select calls, build materials, handle deadlines, read fees, spot predatory offers, and decide when to skip, with pointers to gallery approach and submission-pack siblings.

What Goes in a Gallery Submission

Images, CV, statement, cover note and price list: the pack galleries ask for, with file specs and a ready checklist

A gallery submission pack is a fixed set of files: images with captions, artist statement, short bio, CV, cover note and a price or inventory list. This guide covers what each piece does, common file specs from CAA and CaFÉ norms, how to assemble email and portal bundles, and where approach etiquette belongs instead.

How to Describe Your Own Work

Tombstone facts, wall-length captions and sales copy for single paintings and objects, without rewriting your artist statement

Describe one painting or object with museum-grade tombstone data, a short looking caption and, when needed, practical sales notes. Covers title, date, medium and size conventions, context-specific lengths, process language that stays honest, edge cases, professional editing habits, costs and when to hire help.

How to Write an Artist Bio

Third-person career paragraphs for websites, press packs and programmes, with length targets from fifty words to a short page

An artist bio is a short third-person career summary for websites, press and programmes. This guide covers bio versus statement versus CV, a draft method from verified facts to prose, length versions by context, edge cases for thin records and collaborations, how editors cut text, and when paid help is worth it.