The best way, it has seemed to me, to commemorate the memory of Michael Meinecke was to contribute to this volume in his honor a few recently acquired impressions about a remarkable work of Islamic art. I would have liked to share these impressions with Michael in the way in which scholars of yore used to share with each other, at times through published correspondence, their almost immediate reactions to some new or newly available information. Scientific knowledge was thereby enhanced by a continuous exchange of thoughts, ideas and interpretations. But, mostly, a community of learning was established which exchanged views in writing about these ideas and thus a record was preserved of the processes and, at times, vagaries of scholarly and intellectual pursuit.
