In 1961, a year before designing the World Trade Center towers, American architect Minoru Yamasaki completed a much smaller project that would influence the look of his new creation in New York City.

Wooden mihrab from the shrine of Sayyida Ruqayya, Cairo, Egypt (1133): “Made by the order of the wife of the reigning Fatimid caliph, the mihrab is decorated on all sides, suggesting that it was ...