The chapters explore the inspiration and interest behind the art: Arabic calligraphy, literature, Arabic music — which saw its heyday in the 1950s with the likes of Umm Kulthum and Abdel Wahab — nature, identity, and, of course, war, which has plagued the region throughout the past century. Artists have responded to this complicated an unhappy history by representing fighters, oppressors, and victims in a range of idioms, and with varying degrees of directness,” the book notes.