This program is also available on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.

The Falnama manuscripts were texts containing illustrations of fortunetelling, divination, and dream interpretation practiced in the 17th century Islamic world. Shahs, sultans, and commoners alike used them to explore the unknown. Inexpensive versions were for sale in the streets of Isfahan and Instanbul, but the splendid volumes on view in the exhibition "Falnama: Book of the Omens" at the Sackler Gallery were created for courtly fortunetelling. They might have been used by sultans prior to embarking on a new conquest or a major campaign. The exhibition brings together three of four surviving volumes. Notable for their monumental size, brilliantly painted compositions, and unusual subject matter, these manuscripts, created in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey in the 16th and early 17th centuries, are the centerpiece of the exhibition.

It is the first exhibition of these largely unpublished manuscripts and sheds new light on their artistic, cultural, and religious significance.