"Thank you, I will correct my picture."

"ME countries lack trees, theirs is a desert type climate, so chairs and tables, basically trees, are relatively rare and considered luxury items that could only be found in the rich and well to do families."

"Hi, again, James, I contacted our Persian (Iranian) friend and this is what he says about the bookstand, yes indeed. "The piece that I saw reminded me of the ones we used to use as kids and some versions of Koran that are produced are large enough to cover it. Such book stands are quite common in the Middle Eastern, Muslim, countries basically used to rest Koran when you read it when you are sitting on the floor, cross legged."

"Hi, thanks for leaving a comment, I hope you enjoyed our pictures. It would have helped to have a person standing next to this to show the size, it was quite large, probably larger than a book support would be. It was about 4 feet across and 1 1/2 foot tall. I've googled and so far no luck with finding a comparable picture but again thanks for the interest."

"It looks less like a prayer bench as it does look like a book stand. I can't tell the size of it, but it resembles the bookstands I've seen. The spine of the book rests in the top notch, and each 'wing' supports the cover and pages."