In reflecting on the nature of evil, I find two different kinds of lens particularly helpful. First, to view evil through concepts of mental disorder, as commonly used in Anglophone European psychiatry. Second, as viewed through a traditional account of harmful thought patterns in Christianity, colloquially known as ’The seven deadly sins’.

The ninth of June, 2023, and I’m in London. Ten urgent notifications hit my WhatsApp. A friend, a father of a three-year-old girl, shares the breaking news – ‘Four Toddlers Stabbed in a Playground in France.’

Today, I was in Bakhchysarai again. I skimmed through my father’s historical books. He used to bring them home and always asked me to look at them closely.

Al-Masih ad-Dajjal, the ‘false Messiah’ in Islamic eschatology, corresponding to the ‘Anti-Christ’ in Christianity, is a false Prophet and impostor who, according to tradition, will seek to impersonate Jesus shortly before he returns to earth in the ‘last days’ at the end of time.

My interest in depicting the victims of war and persecution began as a child, when I discovered my grandfather’s collection of World War One photography. These stark images of brutality and industrialised destruction shattered any boyhood illusions of war as a heroic game.

God had blessed Nizam with a pair of hands that made everything taste delightful. Whatever Nizam touched tasted wonderful.

You just can’t get rid of some people. They’re like a bad stain that won’t be scrubbed away. I should know – I’ve been trying to get rid of my grandfather for years.

As for the crowds that throng the Stalin Museum in Gori on a fine spring day, they prove that the fascination the Soviet dictator exerts on posterity remains undimmed.