The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.5.4

v3.c30.5.4

it came to him as a legacy from the pre-Aryan races and ran through the whole fabric of the art. The Muslim, on the other hand, had inherited a vast wealth of rich and varied designs particularly from the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, and though his taste in the handling of ornament might not be so exquisite as the Indian, the value he attached to it was in no way less. Thus it came about that when the conquest of India opened up new realms of art before his eyes, he at once gauged their vast possibilities and set about taking the fullest advantage of them.