The show of Islamic art in the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, Heaven on Earth, confirms the general impression you get from royal collections that princes, like children, are drawn to bright, pretty things. Fabergé eggs, extensive stables and private menageries seem to be what really take their fancy, even more than pictures and trophies of arms. The pieces in gold, studded with emeralds and rubies - much of what is here is palace art - perfectly fit the descriptions of magical treasure in fairy-tales.

Almost the first thing you see is not rich in this way at all, however. It is a piece of blue silk, about a metre and a half square, with an overall pattern made up of row on identical row of the name of Allah spelled out in small, neat script. It was, you learn, a mantra, a visible whispering of the name of God.

LRB 6 May 2004 | PDF Download