Ever since the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, Cairo has been one of the great centers of Islam. The noted French historian Prisse d'Avennes published from 1869 to 1877 his monumental L'art arabe, a sumptuous set of plates illustrating a wide range of art treasures located in and around Cairo. In the city's mosques and palaces, Prisse d'Avennes discovered rare architectural ornaments (tiles, wood carving, paintings on walls and ceilings,...