To Oman recently went artist Penny Williams to sketch the simple beauties of the past in a land already changing underthe influence of the modern world.

"Delicate and beautiful, like silken masks drawn across the faces of comely maidens, they came to symbolize the legendary mystery of the Orient."

Saudi Arabia, which didn't have a single modern institution of higher education 20 years ago, now has three, and at least one has already earned international standing.

Wherever Islam went the potters followed, bringing with them the brilliant beauty of an art that was often imitated but rarely duplicated anywhere in the world.

He started on a baseline in Egypt and went on to Forest Hills. He has beaten Laver, Ashe and New-combe. But for Ismael El-Shafei nothing will do but the top.

When King Faisal of Saudi Arabia said that he wishes to pray in Jerusalem before he dies, many in the West were surprised. They shouldn't have been and here's why.