Albert Einstein: Did you mean...?

A miniature Qur'an in vellum binding. Mughal Empire, 18th century. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

Two detached folios from the Baburnama - the book of Babur which tells the life story of the Emperor Babur (1483-1530) who founded the Mughal Empire in 1526. The left folio shows ascetics at a shrine while on the right is a ceremony where...

An abridged commentary on the Qur’an from Mamluk Egypt, 1478. Museum no. MSL/1869/7219, folio 2a. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

In the royal House of Books (Ketabkhana), which housed the library as well as being the place where manuscripts were created, Hindustani artists and Persian calligraphers, bookbinders, and illuminators came together to work under two Iranian...

A folio from an album of the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) which includes calligraphy by Mir 'Ali. Ink with opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 16th century, Bukhara. The illumination is by Daulat, c.1610 – 20, Mughal; borders...

The third Mughal Emperor Akbar (1540-1605) sought to quell tensions between the Hindu and Muslim communities of Hindustan. Seeking to engender religious harmony and tolerance, he commissioned the translation of major Sanskrit texts into Persian...

A zebra presented to the fourth Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627). Opaque watercolour and gold on paper, by Mansur, 1621, Mughal. Museum no. IM.23-1925. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Garden of Hesperides, oil on canvas by Albert Herter, 19th century.

A 1944 photograph of Albert Speer (1905-81), German Minister of Armaments, Erhard Milch (1892-72), responsible for German aircraft production, and Willy Messerschmitt (1898-78), the aircraft designer. (German Federal Archives).

Cotton shirt made of three panels with verses from the Quran in ink and gold paint. 15th-16th-century India. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)