'Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons, and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts' at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

The great Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman empires flourished during a time of rapid change and artistic innovation in the Islamic world, as people, ideas, and technologies spread across Europe and Asia. At the heart of the empires' courts were networks of individuals—writers, poets, artists, craftsmen—who produced extraordinary works of art for the ruling elite. From November 8, 2015, through January 31, 2016, the Walters Art Museum will present Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons, and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts, the first major exhibition to focus on these influential and often charismatic individuals.

The free exhibition features more than 120 works including paintings, calligraphy, textiles, ceramics, and jeweled luxury objects. Dating from the 16th to the 18th century, these exquisite works of art were created in historic India, Iran, and Turkey, a vast geographic area that extends from the Bay of Bengal to the Mediterranean Sea.

The exhibition was organized by the Walters Art Museum in partnership with the Asian Art Museum, and will be on view at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco from February 26 through May 8, 2016.

Pearls on a String introduces visitors to three fascinating individuals: Abu'l Fazl (1551–1602), a prolific writer, visionary historian, and intimate at the court of the third Mughal emperor Akbar in India; Muhammad Zaman (active ca. 1650– 1700), an imperial artist at the court of Safavid ruler Shah Sulayman; and Sultan Mahmud I (ruled 1730–54), an Ottoman ruler and active patron of the arts and architecture. These figures also inform the exhibition's poetic title: viewed independently, each is a gleaming "pearl," yet collectively they constitute an even more vibrant "string of pearls."

The exhibition provides visitors with a rare glimpse into their long-private worlds. Come peer over the palace walls at Abu'l Fazl, who was the most powerful voice in defining Akbar's policies of political inclusion in the context of a demographically diverse empire. Meet Muhammad Zaman, who radically changed the course of Persian painting by introducing farangi-sazi, a European style, into the Persian tradition. And admire the glittery gadgets that most delighted Mahmud I, a once-forgotten sultan who commissioned fanciful jeweled objects as well as lavish libraries and mosques that define Istanbul's skyline to this day.

"The aim of this exhibition is to bring forth stories about people that are often absent from presentations of Islamic art," says Amy Landau, associate curator of Islamic and South Asian Art, who curated the exhibition. "Pearls on a String seeks to broaden public engagement with the cultural histories of Muslim societies by demonstrating how human imagination and collaboration can ignite extraordinary artistic creativity."

Source: Walters Art Museum [November 14, 2015]