Calligraphy, c. 1596. The fortress at Arbela, present-day Irbil, marked the center of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, homeland to the ethnic Kurds. The lord of the citadel in blue is negotiating its surrender to the Mongol general, who rides the white horse in the lower right. The incident illustrated in this scene took place in 1258, a momentous year that marked the final victory of the Mongols over the Abbasids in the Middle East.