Shah ‘Abbas, a man "equally at home on the dervish's mat and the royal throne", took over a realm squeezed on the one side by the Ottomans and on the other by the Uzbeks. Iran was then militarily and bureaucratically weak and religiously uncertain. It was ‘Abbas who, not without cruelty (he had two of his sons blinded and a third killed), stabilised Iran's borders, cemented Shia Islam as the state religion and used the arts as a key part of his plan for national regeneration.

There were sound practical reasons for his patronage. In 1598, he founded a new capital at Isfahan and its great buildings - particularly the palace-mosque-maidan complex at its heart - needed vast amounts of tilework, gilt and other decoration to glorify it. His attempts at unifying Shia involved the giving of rich gifts (waqf) to major religious centres (ceramics, manuscripts and calligraphy). And Iranian silk in its various forms-from carpets to clerical robes-was a vital trading commodity with both West and East. Examples of all these are on display and are a reminder of how Shah ‘Abbas made his country a major fixture on the world stage - a status that still resonates, though sometimes sinisterly, in modern Iran.