The calendar that follows is updated bimonthly as of the 15th of each of January, March, May, July, September and November. Most institutions listed have further information available through the World Wide Web. Please reconfirm dates and times before traveling. Readers are welcome to submit information for possible inclusion in this listing through the Feedback page. (Please note in the subject line, "Events & Exhibitions.")

Current March

Cihat Burak Retrospective: Modern Traveler, Daring Painter, Timeless Historian charts the life of an unconventional master of modern Turkish art and offers insight into Turkey’s social and cultural history. Paintings, ceramics and prints are among the more than 200 works on display, complemented by 23 photographs of Burak taken by renowned photographer Ara Güler. Istanbul Modern, through March 23.

Egyptian Mummies: Immortality in the Land of the Pharaohs traces the origins of mummification, exploring the cultural background of the practice, ancient Egyptians’ concept of the afterlife and their religious beliefs. It also tracks the development of mummification techniques over time. The exhibition includes more than 300 objects, not only human and animal mummies but also mummy masks, sarcophagi, protective amulets and statuettes of deities, as well as textiles, jewelry and tools. A separate exhibition is provided for children. Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany, through March 24.

Faith & Power: Women in Islam. Muslim women have occupied positions of power for as long as Islam has existed. This ranges from the commercial reputation of the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija, through the 12th century Yemeni ruler Malika Arwa, to the modern-day political leadership of such Islamic states as Pakistan and Bangladesh. This exhibition explores a rich history that has often been overlooked, and, beyond examining the lives of these women and attitudes toward them, it also provides a physical dimension with artifacts from distant times and places. Jewelry, clothing and the accoutrements of power bring new vividness to the lives of forgotten queens, consorts and wielders of influence from behind the throne. Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, March 30 through June 30.

Women of Islam: Photographs by Rania Matar focuses on the issue of the headscarf in Muslim culture. The Boston photographer returns repeatedly to her native Lebanon in pursuit of images of her culture and heritage, and this newest body of her work, in black and white, provides insight into a way of life that is under fire in a secular world. Chicago Cultural Center, through March 30.

Current April

Current Archeological Research: Lectures at the Louvre take place at 12:30 p.m. in the museum auditorium.
• “The Excavations of Shadiakh in Eastern Iran 2001–2005,” April 2.
• “In Search of the Lost Kings of the Sixth Dynasty: The Discovery of a New Necropolis at Saqqara South,” April 7. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

The Blues examines the powerful symbolism of the color and of indigo, which has been called “the devil’s dye.” Yet the color is considered emblematic of wealth and power, as in West Africa; protective against snakes, as in Japan; and even medic-inal, as in Africa and East Asia. To tell the story of the color blue, 36 textiles from West Africa, East Asia and Canada, along with Canadian denim jeans and Japanese pieces lent from private collections, join works by six contemporary artists. Originally woven for gold-miners, blue denim became a symbol of youthful protest in the 20th century and now marks the trend towards globalization in the 21st. Also crossing social and cultural boundaries, blues music colors an emotional mood and haunts the airwaves worldwide. In both music and textiles, blue is a mode of communication. Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto, through April 6.

Islam and Astronomy: Science in the Service of Religion is the topic of a talk in which Silke Ackermann, the British Museum’s curator of European and Islamic scientific instruments, explores the role science plays in Islam, the advanced skills of Muslim scholars and their influence on the West.
In conjunction with the exhibition 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World. 2:30 p.m.; free, but reservations required. Croydon [uk] Clocktower, April 8.

The Phoenicians and the Mediter-ranean presents aspects of the culture of these famed navigators and mer-chants, beginning with their origins around the city-states of Byblos, Sidon and Tyre. Known primarily for their diffusion of the alphabet and their remarkable sculpture, the Phoenicians were also creators of household objects and furnishings of great refinement. The exhibition deals with Phoenicians’ writing—on coins, seals, clay tablets and stone stelae—their religion—represented by stone and metal statues of their pantheon and commemorative plaques—their commerce—responsible for the pan-Mediterranean diffusion of purple cloth and cedar wood—and their craftsmanship in glass, pottery, ivory and precious metals. Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, through April 20.

The Arts of Islam: Treasures From the Nasser D. Khalili Collection comprises more than 500 pieces, including a detailed panoramic watercolor of Makkah from 1843, the earliest known visual record of the city. The exhibition presents both secular and religious art, including calligraphy and manuscripts, talismans, miniature paintings, carpets and other textiles, works associated with the pilgrimage, and both everyday and treasury objects. Other objects relate to science, horsemanship, falconry and the Muslim world’s relations with Europe. This is the first showing in the Middle East of part of the 20,000-item Khalili Collection, the world’s most comprehensive. Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, through April 22.

Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography From Iran presents more than 80 images that provide a revealing view of Iranian life and experience. The 20 artists featured are among Iran’s most celebrated and include Esmail Abbasi (references to Persian literature), Bahman Jalali, Shariyar Tavakoli (family histories), Mehran Mohajer, Shoukoufeh Alidousti (self-portraits and family photographs) and Ebrahim Kahdem-Bayatvin. Some have lived abroad and returned to view their homeland from a changed perspective. Anti-exotic and specific, these images make up the first survey of contemporary Iranian photography to be presented in the United States. Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Florida, through April 25; Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas, May 17 through August 24.

Paradise: Work by Kutlug Ataman displays three recent works by the Turkish artist. The title work presents 24 video portraits of residents of Orange County, California, including the oldest clown in the world, a wedding planner, car- and star-obsessed teenagers and members of the Laughter Yoga Institute of Laguna Beach. Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston [UK], through April 26; Vancouver [BC] Art Gallery, through May 9.

Curiouser and Curiouser: What a Wonder is This World presents selected images from the life’s work of documentary photographer Brynn Bruijn. The traveling retrospective exhibition shows images—many originally photographed for Saudi Aramco World—of the daily activities of people in Africa, China, Europe, Russia and Tibet, while accompanying text references from Lewis Carroll’s Alice encourage us to look at the ordinary in extraordinary ways. Von Liebig Art Center, Naples, Florida, through April 27.

From Gilgamesh to Zenobia: Ancient Arts From the Near East and Iran underlines the importance of those regions in the development of such aspects of western culture as writing, accounting, economy, case-law, the sciences, literature, religions and moral concepts. Objects on display include the famous Gilgamesh Plaque, Luristan bronzes, cylinder seals and inscriptions. Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, through April 27.

Fragmentation and Unity: The Art of Sari Khoury features more than two dozen abstract works by the internationally known artist and educator, who left Jerusalem at 17, in the 1950’s, to forge a new life in the American Midwest. Khoury, who died in 1997, was a prolific writer and speaker; his words share gallery space with his artworks. Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, Michigan, through April 27.

Picturing Jerusalem: James Graham and Mendel Diness, Photographers presents 70 photographs from the 1850’s by the Scottish missionary James Graham and his Odessa-born student, Mendel John Diness, two leading 19th-century photographers working in Palestine. Also exhibited are Diness’s glass-
plate negatives, silver prints, albums, notebooks and other photographic materials, found in a 1989 garage sale in Minneapolis. (See Aramco World, J/A 04.) The exhibition sheds light on the decade’s progress in the field of photography, and political and social aspects of the Holy Land under Ottoman rule. Yeshiva University Museum, New York, through April 27.

Pearls to Pyramids: British Visual Culture and the Levant, 1600–1830 explores the intersection of British visual culture with the countries of the eastern Mediterranean in the early 17th century, when Britain reasserted itself as a dominant participant in the Mediterranean trade long monopolized by Venice. The exhibition, nearly 90 works altogether, introduces the geographical and historical context of that trade with paintings by Sir Peter Lely and the William van de Veldes and through early travel accounts that expressed and inspired fascination with eastern societies. The impact of such commodities as coffee and silk is examined through prints, broadsides and illustrated books. Other items, including architectural drawings made on scholarly expeditions, reflect growing interest in the classical and biblical sites of the Near and Middle East in the 18th century. The exhibition concludes with an examination of the increasingly militaristic cast to the British presence in the Levant in the 19th century following Nelson’s victory over Napoleon in Egypt. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, through April 27.

The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting, 1830–1925 shows more than 90 images of bazaars, baths and domestic interiors in the Near and Middle East by such artists as Joshua Reynolds, J. F. Lewis, W. H. Hunt, David Wilkie, John Singer Sargent, William Holman Hunt, J. M. W. Turner, Roger Fenton, Andrew Geddes and Edward Lear, and provides information on the cross-pollination of British and Islamic artistic traditions and the use of “the Orient” as an exotic backdrop. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, through April 28;Tate Britain, London, June 4 through August 31.

Current May

1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World demonstrates the scientific contributions made by scholars of the Muslim world, using engineering principles, historical manuscripts and multimedia technology to recall a “golden age” of scientific innovation by Muslim scholars between the years 600 and 1600. Coffee, soap and public baths, clocks, experimental optics, the numbers 1 through 9 and the first attempt at flight are among the contributions discussed. Croydon [UK] Clocktower, through May 3.

Impressed by Light: Photographs From Paper Negatives, 1840–1860 is the first exhibition to highlight British photographs made from paper negatives, and features approximately 120 works by such leading artists as Roger Fenton, Linnaeus Tripe and B. B. Turner, as well as many now unfamiliar practitioners. The exhibition demonstrates that, contrary to standard histories, these “calotypes” flourished during the 1840’s and 1850’s. The exhibition follows the progress of the movement from the invention of the process by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839 to the Great Exhibition of 1851, where the esthetic possibilities of the calotype were amply illustrated, to its flowering in the years immediately thereafter. During the 15 years of the calotype’s existence, a body of work was created that significantly expands the understanding of photographic history. Most of the works in the show have never before been exhibited in the United States. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., through May 4; Musée d’Orsay, Paris, May 26 through September 7.

War Artists of the Middle East shows the work of British artists who have documented conflict in the Middle East, from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan, and incorporates travel journals, interviews, film and photography, all documenting the complex landscape of social and political change that shaped the Middle East. Imperial War Museum, London, through May 11.

Mummies: The Dream of Eternal Life combines natural history and anthropology to take the visitor on a trip to the various regions, cultures and continents where mummification— of humans or animals—is practiced or natural mummification is used. The exhibition includes the Ice-Age “Windeby Girl,” a complete Egyptian mummy with sarcophagus, a child mummy from Peru and mummified animals; the oldest exhibit is from the age of the dinosaurs and the most recent from the second half of the 20th century. Reiss-Engelhorn Museums, Mannheim, Germany, through May 18.

Between the Sea and the Desert: The Many Cultures of North Africa showcases the rich and diverse textile culture of the maghrib, western North Africa. Luxurious silks and embroideries from the coastal cities present a cosmopolitan Mediterranean tradition based on Hispano-Moresque, Arab and Ottoman sources. The men’s robes and women’s shawls produced by the indigenous Berber population reveal traditions that flourished and remained unchanged deep in the Atlas Mountains. Rugs made by sedentary Arabs and Berbers of the plains between the sea and the desert, with their bright colors and dramatic patterns, demonstrate the weavers’ exposure to the different cultures of Maghreb. Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto, through May 18.

Royal Tombs of the Scythians: Under the Sign of the Golden Griffon displays more than 6000 spectacular finds from recent excavations of burial mounds—kurgans—on the steppes of Eurasia, the home of the legendary horse-borne nomads known as the Scythians. From the eighth to the third century BC, they held sway over an area stretching from Outer Mongolia across Siberia to the Black Sea. For a long time our knowledge of them was based solely on the accounts of Herodotus; now, modern archeology and scientific and anthropological research can show us the environmental conditions, eating habits, illnesses, and family and trade relationships of this people, creating a comprehensive portrait of Scythian life. Exhibits include mummies so perfectly preserved over more than 2500 years that their tattoos and parts of their clothing have survived; objects of gold and silver; garments of fur, felt and silk decorated with jewels; magnificent jewelry, weapons and ornamented armor; and objects made of wood and leather. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, through May 25.

Current June

Origins of the Silk Roads: Sensational New Finds from Xinjiang presents Han Dynasty (Bronze Age) grave goods from the Tarim Basin, including rare textiles and other organic objects preserved by the region’s extraordinary aridity, that open a new window on people’s lives and lifestyles—and the development of the Silk Roads—in the period from the second millennium BC to about AD500. More than 190 objects are on display. Reiss-Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim, Germany, through June 1.

Babylon is a bold attempt to reconcile history and legend by assembling objects from around the world to document both the factual foundation of the ancient city in about 2300 BC and the myth rooted in that fact. This approach is made possible by the use of new studies that do not depend on either biblical or classical sources; rather, the great eras of Babylonian history are represented by stelae, statues and statuettes, precious objects, and documents and texts in the form of cuneiform tablets, papyri and manuscripts. The evolution of the mythical and psychological representation of Babylon is presented through a collection of printed works, drawings, paintings and miniatures. The exhibition thus allows the viewer to evaluate the influence of Babylon’s cultural heritage in past and present-day civilizations, and to affirm the role of that heritage at the roots of western culture. Drawings, texts and other works elucidate the various phases
of Babylon’s “rediscovery” from the 17th century to today. Musée du Louvre, Paris, through June 2; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, opens June 26.

Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology displays artifacts and artwork, archival photos and documents, photomurals and other materials that tell the story of archeologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) and his exploration of ancient Egyptian civilization, capturing the adventurous spirit of the early days of Egyptian archeology. Excavation notes and personal journals bring to life one of the field’s great pioneers, shedding light on his innovative methods and his theories on the young science of archeology. The exhibition features more than 200 of Petrie’s most significant finds, not displayed since they were hidden in London at the beginning of World War II. They include a rare beaded-net dress from about 2400 BC, a fragment of mankind’s first history book, the earliest examples of metalwork in Egypt, the earliest examples of glass—so rare the Egyptians classed it with gems—the oldest “blueprint” and the first royal monument, from the reign of the legendary Scorpion King, from 3100 BC. Columbia [South Carolina] Museum of Art, through June 8.

China: At the Court of the Emperors presents more than 100 masterpieces from the Tang Dynasty (618–907), whose capital at Chang’an was the eastern terminus of the Silk Roads and, in the eighth century, the world’s largest city, with a population estimated at two million. The dynasty, which reigned over a renaissance of the arts, crafts and literature, flourished in part because of its openness to new ideas, not only those from Central Asia, Persia and Greece but also from India and Japan. The exhibition displays frescoes, stone sculptures, gold and silver objects, ceramics, terracotta statues, glass plates, jewels and precious lacquer-work, including recent finds from Shaanxi Province. Some of these objects reflect Islamic techniques and influences from Persia. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, through June 20.

Current July

The Path of Princes: Masterpieces of Islamic Art From the Aga Khan Museum Collection reveals a millennium’s worth of artistic production from the ninth to the 19th century. With provenances ranging from Spain to Indonesia, these objects from the Aga Khan Museum Collection testify to the craftsmanship of centuries of artisans. Among the works on display are illuminated manuscripts, metal and glass, as well as jewelry and paintings. Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, through July 6.

To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum uses some 120 objects dating from 3600 BC to the year 400 of our era to illustrate the range of strategies and preparations that the ancient Egyptians developed to defeat death and to achieve success in the afterlife. The exhibition explores the belief that death was an enemy that could be vanquished, a primary cultural tenet of ancient Egyptian civilization. To survive in the next world, Egyptians would purchase, trade or even reuse a variety of protective objects such as statues, coffins, vessels and jewelry. The exhibition explains the process of mummification, the economics and rituals of memorials, the contents of the tomb, the funeral accessories—differentiated by the class of the deceased—and the idealized afterlife. Exhibits include the vividly painted coffin of a mayor of Thebes, mummies, stone statues, gold jewelry, amulets and canopic jars. On opening day at 2 p.m., curator Edward Bleiberg of the Brooklyn Museum will discuss religion, esthetics and immortality as seen through the objects on display. Indianapolis Museum of Art, July 13 through September 7.

Current August

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs includes 130 works from the Egyptian National Museum, among them a selection of 50 spectacular objects excavated from the tomb of Tutankhamun, including one of the canopic coffinettes, inlaid with gold and precious stones, that contained his mummified internal organs. Additional pieces in the exhibition derive from the tombs of royalty and high officials of the 18th Dynasty, primarily from the Valley
of the Kings. These additional works place the unique finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun into context and illustrate the wealth and development of Egyptian burial practice during the New Kingdom. The exhibition, more than twice the size of the 1979 “King Tut” exhibition, marks the first time treasures of Tutankhamun have visited Britain in 26 years. O2, London, through August 30.

Current September

For Tent and Trade: Masterpieces of Turkmen Weaving includes some 40 rugs and tent trappings from the museum’s world-class collection, all woven from the white, long-staple, highly hydroscopic wool of adaptable, fat-tailed Saryja sheep, endemic to Central Asia. In spite of the fact that most of the weaving is done on simple horizontal looms staked to the ground, the work of Turkmen weavers, of which extant examples date back to the fourth century bc, is very skillful, well designed and highly patterned. Also on view are five striking mantles masterfully embroidered and worn by women of three different Turkmen tribes. de Young Museum, San Francisco, through September 7.

In Palaces and Tents: The Islamic World From China to Europe describes Muslim contacts with neighboring cultures through more than 300 objects, divided into three chronological sections and one political one, dealing with Russia, that includes a magnificent Bukharan tent. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, through September 7.

Tutankhamun and the World of the Pharaohs is [another] extensive exhibition of more than 140 treasures from the tomb of the celebrated pharaoh and other sites. It includes his golden sandals, created specifically for the afterlife and found on his feet when his mummy was unwrapped; one of the gold canopic coffinettes, inlaid with jewels, that contained his mummified internal organs; and a colossal figure depicting Tutankhamun as a young man, which originally may have stood at his mortuary temple. Providing context and additional information are 75 objects from other tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, through September 28.

Magic in Ancient Egypt: Image, Word, and Reality explores how the Egyptians, known throughout the ancient world for their expertise in magic, addressed the unknown forces of the universe. Ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between religion and magic, and believed that the manipulation of written words, images and ritual could influence the world through a divinely created force known as Heqa, personified as the eldest son of the solar creator Atum. The exhibition also examines connections between magic and medicine and the use of magic after death. Brooklyn [New York] Museum, through September 28.

Current later

Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, the first US survey of the renowned artist’s work, features some 50 pieces from every aspect of Amer’s career as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, performer, garden designer and installation artist. These include such iconic works as Barbie Loves Ken, Ken Loves Barbie (1995/2002) as well as numerous works devoted to world politics, including some of her more recent antiwar pieces. While she describes herself as a painter and has won international recognition for her abstract canvases embroidered with erotic motifs, Ghada Amer explores and expresses broader ideological and aesthetic concerns: the submission of women to the tyranny of domestic life, the celebration of female sexuality and pleasure, the incomprehensibility
of love, the foolishness of war and violence and an overall quest for formal beauty. Brooklyn [New York] Museum, through October 19.

Treasures: Antiquities, Eastern Art, Coins and Casts presents more than 200 of the most significant objects in the Ashmolean’s world-renowned collections. The exhibition provides visitors with a rare opportunity to discover the historic crossing of time and culture in this portrayal of artistic achievement and the development of civilization in Europe, the Near East and the Far East. The treasures represent more than 30 cultures dating from Paleolithic times to the present day, and are presented in nine sections reflecting basic aspects of human activity and interest throughout history. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford [UK], through December 31.

Coming March

Maps: Finding Our Place in the World features more than 100 unique, rare and often beautiful artifacts, including maps on cuneiform tablets, medieval maps, manuscript maps of explorers, globes, maps of areas all around the Earth and maps of nowhere: utopias and imaginary maps. This ambitious exhibition broadens visitors’ understanding of the almost universal human activity of mapmaking. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, March 16 through June 8.

Masters of the Plains: Ancient Nomads of Russia and Canada examines two of the world’s great nomadic cultures side by side for the first time, providing a unique look at the bison hunters of the Great Plains of North America and the livestock herders of the Eurasian steppes. More than 400 artifacts from Canada and Russia permit exploration of food preparation, sacred ceremonies, art, trade, housing design, modes of travel and warfare in the two cultures, which each took shape some 5000 years ago and lasted into recent times—a longevity that compares favorably with history’s greatest civilizations. Albin Museum, Samara, Russia, opens in March.

Coming April

Exploring South Asian Photography is a series of lectures and conversations. A conversation with photographers Ram Rahman and Sunil Gupta of New Delhi takes place April 2; a lecture on “Women Photographers in India” by Sabeena Gadihoke (Jamia Millia University, New Delhi) takes place on May 7. janet_sartor@harvard.edu. Both events at Sackler Lecture Hall, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Queen of the Night, a paleo-Babylonian terracotta plaque in high relief, was created between 1800 and 1750 BC, and is emblematic of the reign of Hammurabi, king of Babylon. It is the focus of a presentation by Dominique Collon of the British Museum. 12:30 p.m., Musée du Louvre, Paris, April 9.

Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past deals with both the looting of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad and the ongoing looting of archeological sites that poses an even greater threat to the cultural heritage of Iraq and the world. Archeological finds and photographs of looted sites and damaged artifacts illustrate such themes as the importance of archeology to history and identity; looting and damage to archeological sites; past combat damage and current construction damage; loss of archeological context; the routes looted artifacts take from Iraq to art markets; progress of recovery efforts at the
Iraq Museum; and what can be done. Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago, April 10 to December 31.

Looting the Cradle of Civilization: The Loss of History in Iraq, a public symposium, will include talks by McGuire Gibson, professor of Mesopotamian archeology, University of Chicago; Geoff Emberling, director, Oriental Institute Museum; Donny George, former director, Iraq National Museum, Baghdad; John Russell, former advisor on culture to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq; Elizabeth Stone, professor of Mesopotamian archeology at suny Stonybrook University, New York; and Patty Gerstenblith, authority on cultural property, De Paul University College of Law. Admission $75; for pre-registration, 773-702-9507 or oi.uchicago.edu. 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Oriental Institute, Chicago, April 12.

Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa: Photographs by James Morris presents 50 large-scale images of structures from monumental mosques to family homes. For centuries, complex adobe structures have been built in the Sahel region of western Africa. Made only of earth mixed with water, these labor-intensive adobe structures display a remarkable diversity of form. Morris, a British photographer whose work centers on the built environment, has created both a typological record of regional adobe construction as well as a rendering of West African architecture that reflects the sensuous, surreal and sculptural quality of these distinctive buildings. Several ambitious religious buildings depicted seem to push the physical limits of mud architecture. More humble structures, such as private homes or neighborhood mosques and churches, are highly expressive and stylish, and often intricately decorated. These African adobe buildings share many of the qualities now much admired in the West: sustainability, sculptural form and the participation of the community in conception, fabrication and preservation. Queens Library Gallery, Jamaica, New York, April 12 through June 21.

Coming May

Lukas Werth in Pakistan. Werth’s photographs have a unique aura: The settings are determined by the subjects themselves, and the selection for the images of both historic and modern urban locations, and both religious and private spaces, speaks for a very delicate relationship between photographer and photographed. Local architecture and decoration are used to indicate foreignness, and Werth’s presence in relation to his subjects seems restrained but not secretive. His exposures and printing techniques result in gravure-like effects that give his images, shot in black-and-white, the warmth that must have illuminated the original scenes. Pergamonmuseum, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, May 2 through June 22.

Muraqqa‘: Imperial Mughal Albums From the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Among the most remarkable of Mughal paintings and calligraphies are those commissioned by the Emperors Jahangir (1605–1627)and Shah Jahan (1627–1658) for display in lavish imperial albums. A window into the world views of the emperors, these exquisite images depict the rulers, the imperial family in relaxed private settings, Sufi teachers and mystics, allies and courtiers, and natural history subjects. Many folios are full-page paintings with superb figural borders; others are collages of European, Persian, and Mughal works collected by the emperors. Produced by the atelier’s leading artists, they reveal the conceptual and artistic sophistication of the arts of the book at their apex in the early 17th century. The exhibition brings together 86 masterpieces—many not previously exhibited in the United States—from the renowned Dublin collection. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., May 3 through August 3.

Türkiye’den Tasar¦m—Design From Turkey. Turkish themes and design elements have inspired European art and handicrafts for centuries, and this selection of 80 objects created by internationally known Turkish designers shows that that relationship continues. The 12 designers represented in the exhibition, though of different generations, have in com-mon that their work includes elements from far back in Ottoman and Turkish artistic traditions, combined with modern functional forms. Their interpretations of historical motifs and concepts is far from obvious or “typical,” but it adds depth to the attractiveness of their work, and visitors will find themselves intrigued by the conversations that arise between the museum’s historical artifacts and the modern objects in this exhibition. Pergamonmuseum, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, May 22 through June 29.

Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul explores the cultural heritage of ancient Afghanistan from the Bronze Age (2500 BC) through the rise of trade along the Silk Roads in the first century of our era. Among the nearly 230 works on view, all from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, are artifacts as old as 4000 years, as well as gold objects from the famed Bactrian Hoard, a 2000-year-old treasure of Bactrian grave goods excavated at Tillya Tepe in 1978 and long thought to have been stolen or destroyed, but rediscovered in 2003. The earliest objects in the exhibition, from Tepe Fullol in northern Afghanistan, are fragmentary gold vases dated between 2500 and 2200 BC. A second group, from the former Greek city Aï Khanum in a region conquered by Alexander the Great, reflects Mediterranean influence between the fourth and second centuries bc, and includes Corinthian capitals; bronze, ivory and stone sculptures representing Greek gods; and images of Central Asian figures carved in Hellenistic style. Trade goods from a third site, at Begram, date from the first century and include ivory statues and elaborately carved Indian ivory reliefs, as well as vases, bronzes and painted glassware, many imported from Roman, Indian, Chinese and East Asian markets. The Tillya Tepe group consists of some 100 first-century gold objects, including an exquisite crown, and necklaces, belts, rings, and headdresses, most inset with semiprecious stones. Many of the Bactrian objects reflect the distinctive local blend of Greek, Roman, Indian and Chinese motifs. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May 25 through September 7.

Coming June

Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. Newly discovered paintings from the royal collection of Jodhpur form the core of this groundbreaking exhibition of 61 paintings from the desert palace at Nagaur, and a silk-embroidered tent. These startling images, 120 centimeters in width, are unprecedented in Indian art and reveal the emergence of a uniquely sensuous garden aesthetic in the 18th century. Ten 17th-century Jodhpur paintings borrowed from museum collections in India, Europe and the US reveal the idiom from which the innovations of later Jodhpur painting emerged. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., June 7 through September 7.

Babylon elucidates the unexpectedly close intellectual and spiritual con-nection between the ancient Near East and Europe over a time span of several millennia. In the first part of this extensive exhibition, archeo-logical artifacts, thematically organ-ized, document that the roots of European civilization reach back into the second millennium BC. The second part explores the reception of Babylonian culture into the intellectual history of Europe from late antiquity into the 21st century. Museum of the Ancient Near East, Pergamonmuseum, Berlin, June 26 through October 5.

The Arts of Kashmir demonstrates the cultural riches of the region, with its Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic art dating from the fourth to the 20th century. The exhibition includes some 135 objects: carpets and embroidery, calligraphy, furniture, paintings, papier-mâché and sculpture. Cincinnati [Ohio] Art Museu