secrets whispered in one room to be heard in all the rest. The windows overlooking the street are overhanging, supported on brackets, and carrying a settee all round. The upper part of the windows is ornamented with coloured glass, introduced in small pieces in a pierced wood pattern, which is painted black or a dark colour. The inhabitants of Baghdad are extremely proud of this form of ornamentation, which they consider belongs entirely to themselves, though its origin is no doubt Persian. An elaborate mashrabiya could signal wealth and status. In the poem, The Shanasil of al-Chalabi’s Daughter, the Iraqi poet, Badr Shaker Alsyyab (1926-1964), describes his lover, al-Chalabi's daughter, coming into view from behind the shanashil or mashrabiya. The poem includes references to the social status of the lover's family who reside in the town's largest house complete with sophisticated mashrabiyas. The mashrabiya, with its concept of secluding women from public view, played into the erotic fantasies of European male audiences. John Frederick Lewis painted both interiors and exterior views of the mashrabiya in works such as: The Courtyard of the Coptic Patriarch's House in Cairo (1864); The Reception (1873), The Midday Meal (1875), and The Siesta, (1876). Other paintings that feature mashrabiya include Walter Charles Horsley's Women and an Old Man in the Harem (1883), Arthur von Ferraris’ The Coffee House (1888) and Jean-Léon Gérôme's The Horse Market, (1867). Certain 20th century artists and photographers, such as Lorna Selim and Rifat Chadirji were prompted to document mashrabiyas for very different reasons. They feared that traditional architectural elements were in danger of being lost to ‘modernity’ and sought to document them for posterity. The British artist, Lorna Selim, who married an Iraqi sculptor, was fascinated by vernacular architecture, especially that along the Tigris. Not long after her arrival in Baghdad, the city underwent a period of "modernisation," during which many traditional houses were being demolished. The architect, Rifat Chadirji and his father, Kamil Chadirji, used the camera to document traditional architecture across Iraq and Syria in the mid-1950s. Current status Use of the mashrabiya became widespread during the Ottoman period (1517-1805). However, by the late 19th century its use was in decline. The reasons for its decline are complex, including both cultural and practical considerations such as the emergence of modernism and the availability of new technologies and materials, the high cost of the labour-intensive work of producing lattice