"His cubism in the fifties was a mixture of Arab forms largely derived from the 13th century Baghdadi illuminator Yahya al Wasiti, and current European forms. But his peasants, his Bedouins, his fishermen owe much to the waters of Tigris and Euphrates. His harvesters, his curd-sellers, however cubistically stylized, laboured under a clear Mesopotamian sun"

- Jabra Ibrahim Jabra