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Falnama: Book of Omens exhibit to open at Smithsonian Sackler Gallery
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(Image courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Galleries)
I've only visited a palm reader once in my life, but I had an experience today that made me think on that visit and wonder about how the tradition of divination had its beginnings.
Had I consulted a Falnama this morning, I would have been like one of the sultans, shahs... and commoners, too, that turned to these unusual illustrated manuscripts to explore their questions of the unknown. Falnamas are rare works, created in the 16th and 17th centuries in Iran and Turkey, that contained wisdom and omens. Four "monumental" - or very large - volumes are known to exist in the world today; three of them are now on display at the first comprehensive international exhibition on this topic to have ever been assembled, in the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery. (If you have not visited the Freer & Sackler Galleries, allow me this quick pitch - GO!) Dr. Massumeh Ferhad, exhibition curator and chief curator for the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian, led a tour and media preview of these displays this morning, which will be open to the public on October 24th, through late January 2010.
Whether it be questions about legal arrangements, concerns about love/wealth/matrimony, anxiety about moving to a new home or starting a new job, the prescriptions found in these Books of Omens show a glimpse of life in the 16th century... and that common concerns those days were hardly different than ours today.
Outside of the Galleries, artist Michael Kirby was hard at work recreating an image from the exhibit in street painting. (A live video stream of Kirby at work throughout the week can be found here.) Before leaving, I stopped to open my "fortune cookie" and find out what my Falnama consultation was to be: "Guard against bad company."
Wise words.
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