A strange light, the likes of which I’d never seen, shone on the cloth, the boxes, the caftans of sultans, swords, the huge pink candles, the wound turbans, pillows embroidered with pearls, gold filigree saddles, diamond-handled scimitars, ruby-handled maces, quilted turbans, turban plumes, curious clocks, ewers and daggers, ivory statues of horses and elephants, narghiles with diamond-studded tops, mother-of-pearl chests of drawers, horse aigrettes, strands of large prayer beads, and helmets adorned with rubies and turquoise. There were heaps of carpets, cloth and satin everywhere, seemingly cascading over me from the wood-paneled upper floors, from the balustrades, the built-in closets and small storage cells built into the walls. I saw mother-of-pearl inlaid boxes, iron trunks, Chinese vases, belts, long-necked lutes, armor, silk cushions, model globes, boots, furs, rhinoceros horns, ornamented ostrich eggs, rifles, arrows, maces and cabinets. I saw swords, elephant tusks, caftans, silver candlesticks and satin banners. The lock on the door, and we looked around in awe, motionless. Whatever that book might be, you shall be “Such a portrait will, of course, have to be concealed within the pages of a book. “ Nonetheless, it is my desire that my portrait be made in the style of the Frankish masters,” Our Sultan went on. You do understand that, eventually, we would unthinkingly begin worshiping any picture that is hung on a wall, don’t you?” My Enishte said: “I understood it quite well, and because I did, I was afraid of what we both were thinking.” “For this reason,” Our Sultan remarked, “I could never allow my portrait to be displayed.” “Though this is exactly what he wanted,” whispered my Enishte, with a devilish titter. If I believed, heaven forbid, the way these infidels do, that the Prophet Jesus was also the Lord God himself, then I’d also hold that God could be observed in this world, and even, that He could manifest in human form only then might I accept the depiction of mankind in full detail and exhibit such images. “But this picture could never be displayed: after a while, we’d begin to worship a picture we’ve hung on a wall, regardless of the original intentions. “ Thereafter,” Our Sultan had said, “ you’ll want to exhibit a picture in whose center you’ve situated a dwarf.” It was as I had assumed.

Was the notion of situating at the center of the page-and thereby, the world-something other than what God had intended.

Red orhan pamuk