"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.

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.

This volume addresses miniature books with a special focus on religious books in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The book presents various empirical contexts for how the smallest books have been produced, distributed, and used in different times and cultures.

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.