‘The Musafirkhana was beautiful. It gave you a feeling for work. You were surrounded by nice woodwork, calligraphy and coloured glass windows. You were in the centre of Cairo, but you didn’t hear any noise. ’Painter Mohammed Abla is soft-spoken yet very angry. Standing in the courtyard of the burned Musafirkhana palace in the heart of Islamic Cairo, Abla sighs and moans. For 21 years he had his studio in this late 18th-century Ottoman palace. In the '60s, the then Minister of Culture, Sarwat Okasha, had decided in a fit of wisdom to provide studios for artists in the Musafirkhana.