Subtlety, tact and understanding — these are qualities not normally associated with the Prince of Wales by those who focus only on his spats with the press, his diaries and his crude lobbying of ministers. But on his present tour of the Middle East and India, Prince Charles has shown that, in areas where he is engaged and can speak with authority, he can prove extraordinarily effective in conveying the right message at the right time.

Both in Egypt and in Saudi Arabia, the Prince has voiced the well-founded concern in Britain that Islam appears to be floundering in the modern world. “I think we need to recover the depth, the subtlety, the generosity of imagination, the respect for wisdom that so marked Islam in its great ages”, he told Saudi ministers, clerics and students at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud University, the most prominent Islamic centre of learning in the kingdom. Not only is his point absolutely right and in need of repetition, but he expressed it in a manner calculated to resonate among those he most wanted to influence — the conservative Wahhabi establishment.

Praising the “great ages of faith”, he argued against a rigid interpretation of religious texts, and upheld the example of Muslim scholars who had grasped the meaning of God’s word for all time and its meaning for this time. His words chime in diplomatically with the new concern within Saudi Arabia to cast off an image of religious extremism and narrow sectarianism. And though not all the future judges and imams graduating from this university shared his more tolerant vision of Islam, they can only have been flattered that a future head of the Church of England recognised the debts that Christianity and Judaism, the two other Abrahamic faiths, owe to Islam.

It is not simply in matters of faith, however, that Prince Charles has demonstrated a surer touch on his present tour. He also used a visit to a Saudi technical college attempting to instil a greater respect for work among a gilded, disaffected youth to underline his own commitment to training and opportunity. The circumstances are very different — Saudi Arabia is worried by the relationship between unemployment and terrorism, while the focus of the Prince’s Trust is on joblessness and social deprivation. But both are trying to emphasise the dignity of labour.

Prince Charles, of course, has a particular advantage in Saudi Arabia, where his friendship with the ruling family and the status of royalty make him a more effective diplomat than in most countries. But two things have aided him on this tour: his own more relaxed manner after his marriage, and the gift the Duchess of Cornwall has shown for putting at ease those she meets. Her visits to children in Egypt and to a school in Riyadh were marked by a low-key, friendly sincerity that enhanced both her dignity and her grace. Laying a wreath at the grave of her father’s fellow combatants at El Alamein, she displayed a humanity and emotion that was neither affected nor exploited. At home and abroad she struck the right note.

Royal visits are not occasions for policy-making. This visit, however, to two countries in the Middle East where suspicion and radicalism threaten to undermine friendly relations, has been handled with imagination and aplomb. A few days of good judgment are no guarantee of a lifetime of wisdom, but these are encouraging signs.