Item Tag 386 Pages

New copy in shrink-wrap. A wonderful gift! A marvelous history of this great book.What lies ahead? Answers to this age-old question are found in the Falnama, the book of omens consulted by shahs, sultans, and commoners alike in Safavid, Iran and Ottoman, Turkey. Whether by consulting the positions of planets, casting horoscopes, or interpreting dreams, the art of divination has been a universal practice for centuries. In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in Iran and Turkey, one of the most splendid tools to gain insight into the unknown was a series of illustrated manuscripts known as the Falnama (Book of omens). Popular at court and on the streets of Isfahan and Istanbul, only four “monumental “copies of these exceptional works remain. They are notable for their impressive scale and brilliantly painted images of prophets, heroes, villains, and signs of the zodiac. With their encouraging or dire omens, they represent some of the most original manuscripts associated with Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey. Featured in this, the first exhibition and 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. Considering the Falnamas’ pictorial and verbal auguries as integrated ensembles, these images and their prognostications shed new light on the Safavid and Ottoman artistic, cultural, political, and religious landscape of the period. Essays by scholars of Safavid, Ottoman, and Byzantine history, culture, 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. Know and be aware… 978-0-934686-04-4 Paperback