‘The Eye of the Sultan’, ‘Paradise upon Earth’, ‘The Pearl and the Emerald’– Islamic palaces bore such poetical names. Palaces in Islam did not simply serve as a dwelling site of the ruler or the sultan and his wives, but also as a mythical locus of legendary splendor with crystal domes and glass floors, a place of official ceremonies, as much as sumptuous banquets and games, a habitat of exotic animals and mechanical toys. In the Islamic palace, the real and the imaginary are often blurred as in the Arabian ‘Thousand and One Nights’ Tales or in the Iranian ‘Shah-nama’. The Seminar explores both surviving palaces across Islam, and representations of palaces – historical or legendary – in paintings and illustrations from Iran in the east to Spain (Andalus) in the west.