Falnama the book of omens : [published on the occasion of the Exhibition Falnama: The Book of Omens, October 24, 2009 - January 24, 2010

"Published by the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition Falnama: The Book of Omens, October 24, 2009-January 24, 2010, organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution." "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. The most splendid tools ever devised to foretell the future were illustrated texts known as the "Falnama" ("Book of Omens"). This book deals with these extraordinary manuscripts and focuses on their artistic, cultural and religious significance.