UC San Diego professor Nir Shafir examines the proliferation of forged Medieval illustrations and recreated fictional objects in history books, museums, and libraries that depict nonexistent aspects of Islamic science. While Shafir rejects those who “vilify Islam as the antithesis of civilisation,” he nonetheless recognizes the danger of whitewashing history, concluding that “this progressive impulse . . . is an offshoot of a creeping, and paternalistic, tendency to reject the real pieces of Islamic heritage for its reimagined counterparts.”