You have spent the day debating about the Islamic digital economy inside a building that opened five months ago and was already named by Smithsonian magazine as one of the ten most anticipated museum openings of 2026. Under the 65-metre dome sits the Uthman Qur'an - a 7th-century manuscript, one of the oldest surviving copies in the world, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register - alongside 114 rare Qur'anic manuscripts and more than 2,000 artefacts, many repatriated through international auction. The through-line writes itself: this region ran the world's knowledge network once, from these cities, on these roads. Walk the building before you fly home.

