The exhibition opens with an anonymous painting in which 16th-century Venetian diplomats, identifiable only by their simple dress in comparison with the rich garb of the locals, are being presented to a Mamluk leader.
Muslim rulers, from the Abbasids in the eighth century to the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt and the Ottomans, developed the institution of military slavery to lessen nepotism and the internal conflicts created by tribal loyalties.
The exhibition overflows with surprising hybrids, such as a Mamluk carpet woven with a menorah from a synagogue in Padua and the first printed Koran, made in Venice for the Turkish market in the 15th century.