Ibn Battuta

Tile from a Mihrab With its unusual pointed arch shape and Qur’anic inscription, this large-scale tile with interlacing vegetal decoration likely formed part of a mihrab—a niche indicating the direction of prayer within mosques and other sacred structures

A Princely Couple EmbraceThe unusually large size of this picture and the monumental scale of its youthful couple have led scholars to conclude that it may have served as the model for a wall painting

The Futuh al-Haramayn explains the rituals of the pilgrimage (hajj) all Muslims must complete once during their lifetime and describes the holy sites they can visit in the cities of Mecca and Medina. The text was written by Muhi al-Din Lari, completed in India in 1505–6, and copied many times afterward with a standard set of illustrations—bird's-eye views of the monuments and sites with labels for the reader

This rectangular tile depicts a stylized view of Mecca, with the black-shrouded Ka‘ba in the center of the Masjid al-Haram and other buildings within and around the holy sanctuary. It is part of a larger material corpus related to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca and sites in its vicinity, which each pious Muslim should perform once in his or her life

The text of the Futuh al‑Haramain comprises a guidebook for those performing the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca and other places sacred to the Muslim faith. Manuscripts typically include descriptions of the rituals and prayers to be performed at each location, along with images of the shrines and other views of pilgrimage sites

Folio from the Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya of al-Jazari One of the finest surviving examples of Mamluk painting, this manuscript page belongs to a dispersed copy of the Kitab fi ma‘rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) transcribed by Farrukh ibn ‘Abd al-Latif in A

Folio from the Davis AlbumSo influential was the distinctive and innovative style fostered by the late Safavid artist Muhammad Zaman that the works of his many followers are sometimes difficult to distinguish from his own—particularly since they are often inscribed, in the manner of the master, with the words ya sahib al-zaman ("O master of the Age," a pious exclamation)

Shah Tahmasp, Iran (until 1568; gifted to Selim II); Sultan Selim II, Istanbul (from 1568); Sultan Selim III, Istanbul (by 1800); Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, Paris (by 1903–d. 1934); his son, Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris and Geneva (1934–d

The colophon of the manuscript from which this folio comes establishes that the book was copied by Sultan Muhammad Nur in A.H. 931/1524–25 A.D., a date that also appears in an architectural inscription on one of its paintings

Ibn Battuta is one of history's great explorers. He set out from his native Tangier in 1325, when he was just 21. By the time he returned home for good almost 30 years later, he had covered some 120,000 km and nearly every part of the Islamic world

Ğāmi‛ al-tavārīḫ. Rašīd al-Dīn Fazl-ullāh Hamadānī -- [c.1430-1434] -- manuscrits

The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery are the Smithsonian's museums of Asian art.

Damascus, urbs nobilißima ad Libanum montem, totius Syriae metropolis -- 1574 -- cartes

From nomadic necessity to the opulence of royal pomp, from Central Asia to Persia, Turkey and India, tents have taken countless forms that expressed not only their inhabitants’ wealth and cultural refinement, but also their technical and organizational powers-— especially in the great “tent cities” of armies and royal ceremonies.

Portolan charts came into use on sailing vessels in the Mediterranean Sea toward the end of the 13th century. Made for and, in many cases, by seamen, these nautical maps were characterized by the system of intersecting loxodromes, or rhumb lines, which crisscross each chart and the ornamented compass rose that usually appears. This atlas of five manuscript charts has been attributed to Juan Oliva, a member of the illustrious Oliva family of Catalan chartmakers who began working in Majorca…