"Praised by the New York Times as "a highly important exhibition book," this lavishly produced catalog reproduces illustrated texts from the groundbreaking exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Called "fabulous" by the Washington Post, Falnama was the first show of its kind dedicated to the art of divination in the Islamic world. The Falnama were brilliantly painted compositions created in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Falnama: The Book of Omens combines rare images with scholarly texts on the deeper meaning of dreams, omens, and divination. Featured in this first publication ever devoted to the Falnama as a genre are intact volumes as well as text folios and illustrations now dispersed among international public and private collections. Essays by scholars of Safavid, Ottoman, and Byzantine history and language, complemented by full-color illustrations, offer detailed analysis of the form, content, and meaning of these rarely seen works of art. The first-ever translations of three of the four monumental copies provide insight into a vivid and enduring aspect of human concern--the unknown."--Publisher's website.

~FAL NAMA~Divination Book of Hafez of ShirazTranslation, Introduction, Interpretations Paul SmithHafez's Divan of poems has been used as an Oracle successfully by millions of people from all walks of life for the past 600 years. The practice of interpreting his insightful poems ('fal') has been a long tradition worldwide. Here are four hundred ghazals with insightful, clear interpretations by Paul Smith, an Introduction that includes his life, poetry, spirituality and the history of the use of his book as one of the world's great Oracles. The correct rhyme has been kept and the beauty and meaning of these immortal, mystical poems. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" 438 pagesGertrude Bell: "It is as if his mental Eye, endowed with wonderful acuteness of vision, had penetrated into those provinces of thought which we of a later age were destined to inhabit."Meher Baba: "There is no equal to Hafez in poetry. He was a Perfect Master ... His Divan is the best book in the world because it engenders feelings which ultimately lead to illumination."Goethe: "In his poetry Hafez inscribed undeniable truth indelibly! He has no peer!"COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFEZ'S 'DIVAN'."It is not a joke... English version of all the ghazals of Hafez is a great feat of paramount importance. I am astonished." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran."Superb translations. 99% Hafez 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator and knower of Hafez's Divan off by heart."I was very impressed with the beauty of these books." Dr. R.K. Barz. Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University.Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafez, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Omar Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Lalla Ded, Rahman Baba, Baba Latif, Iqbal, Ghalib, Nazir, Mansur Hallaj, Ibn al-Farid and others, and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies and screenplays.www.newhumanitybooks.com

In the early 1400s, Iranian elites began migrating to the Deccan plateau of southern India. Lured to the region for many reasons, these poets, traders, statesmen, and artists of all kinds left an indelible mark on the Islamic sultanates that ruled the Deccan until the late seventeenth century. The result was the creation of a robust transregional Persianate network linking such distant cities as Bidar and Shiraz, Bijapur and Isfahan, and Golconda and Mashhad. Iran and the Deccan explores the circulation of art, culture, and talent between Iran and the Deccan over a three-hundred-year period. Its interdisciplinary contributions consider the factors that prompted migration, the physical and intellectual poles of connectivity between the two regions, and processes of adaptation and response. Placing the Deccan at the center of Indo-Persian and early modern global history, Iran and the Deccan reveals how mobility, liminality, and cultural translation nuance the traditional methods and boundaries of the humanities.

Welcome to the world of Lenormand! This system of divination was inspired by Madame Adelaide Lenormand, a well-known psychic at the time of the French Revolution, and was first realized in the late 1700s. This guide will help readers master a style that yields practical advice applicable to today’s world. Receive answers to your most puzzling questions by following simple steps that lead you through each of the 36 cards. Learn to work with spreads that will take you from beginning layouts to the famed revealing of the 8 keys that unlock the Grand Tableau, which uses all the cards in one spread for an in-depth reading. Identify and understand the symbolism of regular playing cards; find out the physical attributes of people identified in your readings; learn about love, health, money, time, and more. Can be used with any Lenormand deck.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Art of the Qur'an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul, held at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., October 15, 2016-February 20, 2017.

In this guest-edited issue of Biblical Reception, edited by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, contributors examine the reception of the bible in art. Most of the contributions focus on biblical women, or on encounters with women in the bible. The volume is roughly chronological in structure, beginning with two pieces on Eve, one of which compares representations of Eve with those of the Virgin Mary, the other which considers how Eve is presented in Islamic texts and images. Following a contribution on Esther and Sarah the volume moves on to consider New Testament texts, with notable focus on women at the peripheries of society (the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark's gospel and the woman of Samaria). Attention is also paid to representations of Mary Magdalene and of Judith and Salome. The volume concludes with a piece on apocalyptic imagery and the woman clothed with the sun of Revelation 12. Featuring over 50 high quality color images, this volume provides scholarship of the highest level on biblical art.

A theoretically rich, nuanced history of Islam and Islamic civilization with a unique sociological component This major new reference work offers a complete historical and theoretically informed view of Islam as both a religion and a sociocultural force. Uniquely comprehensive, it surveys and discusses the transformation of Muslim societies in different eras and various regions, providing a broad narrative of the historical development of Islamic civilization. This text explores the complex and varied history of the religion and its traditions. It provides an in-depth study of the diverse ways through which the religious dimension at the core of Islamic traditions has led to a distinctive type of civilizational process in history. The book illuminates the ways in which various historical forces have converged and crystallized in institutional forms at a variety of levels, embracing social, religious, legal, political, cultural, and civic dimensions. Together, the team of internationally renowned scholars move from the genesis of a new social order in 7th-century Arabia, right up to the rise of revolutionary Islamist currents in the 20th century and the varied ways in which Islam has grown and continues to pervade daily life in the Middle East and beyond. This book is essential reading for students and academics in a wide range of fields, including sociology, history, law, and political science. It will also appeal to general readers with an interest in the history of one of the world’s great religions.

The first study of album-making in the Ottoman empire during the seventeenth century, demonstrating the period’s experimentation, eclecticism, and global outlook The Album of the World Emperor examines an extraordinary piece of art: an album of paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and European prints compiled for the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–17) by his courtier Kalender Paşa (d. 1616). In this detailed study of one of the most important works of seventeenth-century Ottoman art, Emine Fetvacı uses the album to explore questions of style, iconography, foreign inspiration, and the very meaning of the visual arts in the Islamic world. The album’s thirty-two folios feature artworks that range from intricate paper cutouts to the earliest examples of Islamic genre painting, and contents as eclectic as Persian and Persian-influenced calligraphy, studies of men and women of different ethnicities and backgrounds, depictions of popular entertainment and urban life, and European prints depicting Christ on the cross that in turn served as models for apocalyptic Ottoman paintings. Through the album, Fetvacı sheds light on imperial ideals as well as relationships between court life and popular culture, and shows that the boundaries between Ottoman art and the art of Iran and Western Europe were much more porous than has been assumed. Rather than perpetuating the established Ottoman idiom of the sixteenth century, the album shows that this was a time of openness to new models, outside sources, and fresh forms of expression. Beautifully illustrated and featuring all the folios of the original seventy-page album, The Album of the World Emperor revives a neglected yet significant artwork to demonstrate the distinctive aesthetic innovations of the Ottoman court.

In Lives of the Prophets: The Illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru’s “Assembly of Chronicles” Mohamad Reza Ghiasian analyses two extant copies of the Majmaʿ al-tawarikh produced for the Timurid ruler Shahrukh (r. 1405–1447). The first manuscript is kept in Topkapı Palace and the second is widely dispersed. Codicological analysis of these manuscripts not only allows a better understanding of Hafiz-i Abru’s contributions to rewriting earlier history, but has served to identify the existence of a previously unrecognised copy of the Jamiʿ al-tawarikh produced at Rashid al-Din’s scriptorium. Through a meticulous close reading of both text and image, Mohamad Reza Ghiasian convincingly proves that numerous paintings of the dispersed manuscript were painted over the text before its dispersal in the early twentieth century.