REBIRTH 197would have found society divided to a greater or lesser extent into public
and private realms, and women would have been sequestered in the private
world, while men exercised near total possession of the public realm.
What women the traveler did see in the public world-shopping, for
example, or going from one house to another on a visit-would probably
have a garment of some kind at least obscuring and perhaps covering their
faces. If he saw women with uncovered faces, he would know that they be-
longed to the lower classes: they might be peasants, for example, or ser-
vants, or laborers of some kind. Whatever the women might be wearing, it
would not expose their arms, legs, or cleavage, and they would wear a head
covering of some kind.
Men's clothing styles would differ from place to place, but everywhere
the traveler went, men's heads, too, would be covered, their garments
would be loose rather than form fitting, and they would wear something
that would not permit their crotches to show when they prostrated them-
selves in the prayer ritual.
Throughout this world, calligraphy would have prestige as an art form,
representational (as opposed to abstract and decorative} art would be rare
except in illuminated books, and the spoken and written word would be
honored.
Every city the traveler passed through would be like a collection of vil-
lages without many big through-streets; none would be set up on the
checkerboard pattern of Hellenic cities. Every neighborhood would have
its own bazaar, every city its spectacular mosques, and the mosques would
always feature domes and minarets and would very commonly be deco-
rated with glazed mosaic tiles.
If the traveler struck up a conversation with some stranger in this
world, he would find that he and this stranger shared certain mythological
references: both would know the leading personalities of the Abrahamic
tradition-Adam, David, Moses, Noah, and so on; both would also know
not just all about Mohammed but also Abu Bakr, Omar, Ali and Othman,
and they would have impressions of and opinions about these personali-
ties. They would share knowledge of major events in history as well; they
would know, for example, about the Abbasids and the Golden Age over
which they presumably presided, and they would know about the Mon-
gols and the devastation they wrought.