Two galleries of the National Museum of Iraq are scheduled to reopen in December 2007, according to The Art Newspaper, quoting officials assisting the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities. The Assyrian Hall, containing stone panels from Khorsabad and other monumental pieces, and the Islamic Hall, which includes the eighth-century mihrab from Baghdad’s Al-Mansur Mosque, have been refurbished and their contents restored where necessary. The museum has been closed since April 2003.

Current January

European Cartographers and the Ottoman World 1500–1750: Maps From the Collection of O. J. Sopranos. This exhibition of maps, sea charts and atlases explores how mapmakers came to know and map the Ottoman world between the 15th and 18th centuries. It begins with the intellectual and geographical discoveries of the 15th century that undermined the medieval view of the cosmos and illustrates how cartographers sought to produce and map a new geography that reconciled classical ideas and theories with the information brought back by travelers. The exhibition is organized around such themes as the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s Geographia and its impact on geographic thought and mapping practices; the practical tradition of sea charting that developed in the Mediterranean; the new cartographies of Gastaldi and Ortelius, who sought to hold up a mirror to the known world; the production of Ottoman geographies; and the ways in which enlightened French cartography affected the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe. The exhibits include manuscript portolan charts and atlases, the earliest printed maps of the Ottoman Empire, an Ottoman sea atlas, bird’s-eye views of cities, a rare printed Ottoman atlas from the early 19th century, decorative regional maps, a sea chart described as among the finest examples of 18th-century Dutch map art, and sketches, memoirs and reports from travelers whose observations and descriptions of the Ottoman world enabled cartographers to update their maps. The exhibition demonstrates the power of maps to reflect and shape geographical knowledge. Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago, January 17 through March 2.

Alexander’s Image and the Beginning of Greek Portraiture retraces the development of Macedonian regal coinage from the first attempts to represent a ruler—the king as horseman—to portraiture based on actual physiognomy. The idealization of Alexander the Great led to the individualistic rendering of his successors. Coins became vehicles of political propaganda to justify a ruler’s power. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, through January 20.

Pharaohs, Queens and Goddesses, presented in tandem with Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, is dedicated to powerful female pharaohs, queens and goddesses of Egyptian history. The central object of the exhibition is a granite head of Hatshepsut, the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1539–1292 BC) and one of the 39 women represented in The Dinner Party; other women and goddesses featured include queens Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Tiye and the goddesses Sakhmet, Mut, Neith, Wadjet, Bastet, Satis and Nephthys. Brooklyn Museum, New York, through January 20.

Afaf Zurayk’s works function on personal, individual and public levels, evoking the energy, flow and contradictions of love. The 45 pieces on display were executed during the last seven years. Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, through January 25.

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. Asia Society, New York, through January 27.

Traces of the Calligrapher and Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur´an brings together calligrapher’s tools of the 17th through the 19th centuries from Iran, India and Turkey, including pens, pen boxes, chests, tables, paper scissors, knives and burnishers of superb manufacture and design. These objects are presented with contemporary examples of calligraphy and book binding: practice exercises, occasional works, wall hangings and manuscripts. In Islamic culture calligraphy is still regarded as the greatest art form, and calligraphers are among the most highly esteemed artists. Traces of the Calligrapher serves to reconstruct the intimate world of the calligrapher, bringing together the tools of the trade—works of art in their own right—and the exquisite products of these functional objects. The exhibition offers new insights into the environment in which the calligrapher worked during the early modern period of Islamic culture. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, through January 27.

Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World. The elegance and beauty of the Tuareg peoples—their dress and ornament, their large white riding camels, their refined song, speech and dance—have all been rhapsodically described by travelers in Niger, Mali and Nigeria. This exhibition explores the history and culture of the Tuareg through more than 200 items of their silver jewelry, clothing, leather purses, bags and saddles, and other highly decorated items. National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., through January 27.

Egypt’s Sunken Treasures presents a spectacular collection of some 500 artifacts recovered from the seabed off the coast of Alexandria and in Aboukir Bay during a decade of painstaking archeology. The finds shed new light on the history of the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion, the eastern reaches of Canopus, the sunken part of the Great Port of Alexandria and the city’s legendary royal quarter, as well as of Egypt as a whole, over a period of almost 1500 years, from the last pharaonic dynasties to the dawn of the Islamic era. Art and Exhibition Hall, Bonn, Germany, through January 27.

Current February

ReOrient 2008: The Eighth Annual Festival of Short Plays Exploring the Middle East features plays by Yussef El Guindi, Naomi F. Wallace, Ignacio Zulueta and others. Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, through February 3.

Splendor and Intimacy: Mughal and Rajput Courtly Life shows exquisite miniature paintings and decorative objects, including jades, jewelry and weapons, that demonstrate the richness of the arts produced in South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. The selection of objects in this exhibition offers a glimpse into the courtly life of the Mughal emperors (1526–1857) as well as that of their Rajput opponents and vassals. The interaction between the imperial Mughal dynasty and the rugged, proud Rajputs led to an immense flowering of art and architecture (seen most magnificently in the Taj Mahal) that greatly enhanced the architectural and artistic heritage of India and Pakistan. Art Institute of Chicago, through February 3.

Rumi and the Sufi Tradition exhibits more than 30 Islamic art objects—miniatures, calligraphy, ceramics, metalwork, glass and textiles—created between the 13th and the 19th centuries that evoke the world in which Rumi lived and suggest the scope of his legacy. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, through February 3.

Babylon elucidates the unexpectedly close intellectual and spiritual connection between the ancient Near East and Europe over a time span of several millennia. In the first part of this extensive exhibition, archeological artifacts, thematically organized, 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. Musée du Louvre, Paris, through February 6.

The Badrans: A Century of Tradition and Innovation is an exhibition of art, architecture and design by members of the Badran family, whose roots in Jerusalem go back to the establishment of the Badran brothers’ first art studio. The family patriarch, Jamal Badran, was responsible for the restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the 1920’s, and the exhibits include his drawings for the restoration of the minbar of Salah al-Din in that mosque. Architect Rasem Badran, an Aga Khan Award winner (1995), is known for his synthesis of traditional elements with modernism, and a series of architectural drawings and sketches is on display showing his work in Palestine and abroad. Visual artist Samira Jamal Badran presents 12 pieces of art exploring the notion of crossing barriers and its psychological and physical impact on the Palestinians. First of the third generation, architect Jamal Rasem Badran shows a video examining his use of contemporary language in architectural design. Ola Rasem Badran participates with drawings and two models of a stage set for a play about the transformation of human behavior during war and conflict. Birzeit University Ethnographic and Art Museum, Palestine, through February 9.

Overlapping Realms: Arts of the Islamic World and India, 900–1900 presents a sampling of visual arts produced by the varied peoples who inhabited the region stretching from southern Europe through South Asia. Shifting political circumstances and different religious faiths influenced the artists’ worldviews and in many ways determined their opportunities and modes of expression. Relying primarily on ceramics and metalwork, the exhibition emphasizes commonalities and continuities, even as it explores diversity of intention and technique. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, through February 10.

Novos Mundos—New Worlds: Portugal and the Age of Discovery centers on the early 15th to the 17th century and highlights the European expansion, with a focus on Portugal. Through such outstanding seafaring accomplishments as Bartolomeu Dias’s circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope (1488), Vasco de Gama’s opening of the sea route to India (1498), Cabral’s “discovery” of Brazil (1500) and the first voyage around the world by Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan) (1519–21), the Portuguese kingdom of the 15th and 16th centuries made a decisive contribution to the globalization of sea and trade routes and in many cases to the first encounters of different cultures and nations. Alongside the history of Portugal, as well as the scientific and technical prerequisites and by-products of the sea journeys, the exhibition offers insight into the realms and cultures encountered by the Portuguese, the form of the various contact scenarios and the manner and significance of the relations that ensued and rapidly intensified—among them political conflicts, trade relations and cultural exchange.German Historical Museum, Berlin, through February 10.

Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art presents more than 100 artworks from a range of periods, regions, genres and peoples that testify to the richness and diversity of African scripts and graphic forms of communication. An introductory section focuses on the history of particular African scripts, including ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Vai and Mende from Liberia and Sierra Leone, the ancient Tifinagh script of the Tuareg people, Nsibidi from Nigeria and the liturgical Ge’ez script from Ethiopia. The use in Africa of imported writing systems, such as Arabic and Roman scripts, is also addressed, and selected works show how contemporary African artists engage with scripts or invent their own. Subsequent sections consider body inscription, sacred writing, power and politics, artists’ books and words in art. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, through February 17.

Collector’s Luck: Islamic Art from the Edmund de Unger Collection includes rock crystal from Egypt; early Arabic, Turkish and Persian miniatures; Andalusian and Turkish textiles and other objects complementing the museum’s own world-famous collection. Pergamonmuseum, Museum for Islamic Art. Berlin, through February 17.

Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples is the first exhibition to focus on the art and significance of Egyptian metal statuary; it presents a new understanding of this type of statuary, its influences and its meaning. The ancient Egyptians used copper, bronze, gold and silver to create lustrous, graceful statuary that, most characteristically, stood at the crux of their interactions with their gods, from ritual dramas that took place within the temples and chapels that dotted the landscape everywhere, to the festival processions through the towns and countryside that were thronged by believers. On view from domestic and international collections are some 70 superb statues and statuettes created in precious metals and copper alloys over more than two millennia, including several of the extremely rare inlaid and decorated large bronzes from the Third Intermediate Period (1070–664 BC), which represents the apogee of Egyptian metalwork. Catalogue. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, through February 18.

Shirin Neshat, photographer and video artist, is one of the best-known Persian artists in the West. She grew up in her native Iran and moved to the us after the Iranian Revolution. Drawing on the discrepancies between the culture she experienced growing up and that of post-revolutionary Iran, where she visited in 1990, Neshat’s works address the social, political and psychological dimensions of women’s experiences in contemporary Islamic societies. Gladstone Gallery, New York, through February 23.

Wine, Worship and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani presents gold, silver and ceramic vessels, jewelry, Greek bronze sculpture, Greek and Colchian coins and Greek glassware that together give a rich and informative archeological view of the ancient Asian country south of the Caucasus and its administrative center, Vani. The exhibition features the contents of a grave found in Vani in 2004 containing elaborate Colchian gold hair-ornaments and appliqués for clothing; a Persian silver bucket, ladle and libation bowls; Greek wine amphorae and red-figure pottery; and a Greek bronze torso. Additional highlights include Greek silver drinking cups of a kind that (though well documented) have not survived in Greece itself; a magnificent Colchian gold necklace with 31 pendant tortoises, each decorated with fine granulation; and a gold pectoral inlaid with carnelian and turquoise figures influenced by Egyptian, Greek and Achaemenid jewelry. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., through February 24.

Islamic Art in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection shows the work of 50 artists active in the 12th through 20th centuries. The works on display include ceramics from Seljuk Persia, Syria and Ottoman Turkey; Mamluk mosque lamps; illuminated manuscripts and bindings from Safavid and Qajjar Persia; and silks and velvets from Persia, India, Turkey and Central Asia. Catalog. Palais de la Culture, Algiers, through February 28.

Modern and Beyond covers the history of art in Turkey from 1950 to the millennium, bringing together some 450 works by more than 100 artists and groups, focusing on the transformation art has undergone in a half-century of rapid change. Santralistanbul, Istanbul, through February 29.

Current March

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 are highly expressive and stylish and often intricately decorated. Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, California, through March 2.

Adobe Vault Building Workshop will teach methods and materials, some dating back more than two millennia in Egypt, for the construction of eco-friendly, low-cost modern buildings. Interns welcome. www.adobealliance.org; (832) 277 4425. Presidio, Texas, March 8 to 12.

Plural Modernity: Contemporary Arab Art exhibits approximately 120 works from the Institute’s collection, representing some 80 artists from 15 Arab countries, to reveal a panorama of contemporary creativity. Since many of the artists have left their native countries to study and establish themselves overseas, they have created strong bonds between West and East, and their work is rich in influences ranging from Africa and Asia to Europe and shows a great diversity of styles. The exhibition is a testament to the complexity and fertility of the Arab creative mind. Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, through March 9.

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.

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 March 24.

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.

The Phoenicians and the Mediterranean presents aspects of the culture of these famed navigators and merchants, 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. Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, through March 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

Amarna: Ancient Egypt’s Place in the Sun offers a rare look at the unique royal center of Amarna, the ancient city of Akhetaten, which grew, flourished and vanished in hardly more than a generation’s time. The exhibition features more than 100 artifacts, including statuary of gods, goddesses and royalty, monumental reliefs, golden jewelry, personal items of the royal family and artists’ materials from the royal workshops. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, through April.

Hidden Afghanistan traces the history of a country strategically placed along the trade routes that linked East and West, and presents some 250 archeological treasures that were heroically preserved from Taliban iconoclasts in 1993 and recovered only in 2004. The find sites were Tepe Fullol, representing the Bactrian Bronze Age around 2000 BC; Ai Khanum, a city that bears witness to Hellenism on the edge of the steppes (fourth to second centuries BC); Tillya-tepe, which yielded jewelry and other art objects from six graves from the first century of our era; and Begram, also from the first century, which revealed elaborate Indian furniture in ivory, glass, vases and Hellenistic objects. Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, through April 20.

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.

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. The work of Turkmen weavers, of which extant examples date back to the fourth century BC, is very skillful and highly patterned. de Young Museum, San Francisco, 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.

Current May

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.

Current Later

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. Future venues include Dallas and two other U.S cities. O2, London, through August 30, 2008.

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 Museum, New York, through September 28, 2008.

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, 2008.

Coming January

Truly God is Beautiful and Truly Loves All is part of the 500-piece “Arts of Islam” exhibition of objects from the Nasser D. Khalili collection of Islamic art, displayed for the first time in the Middle East. The works exhibited include calligraphy, miniature painting, carpets and other textiles. TDIC, Abu Dhabi, January 23 through April 31.

Coming February

Yehia Hassan’s intimate sketches, fast becoming his signature art form, capture their subjects in fluent and subtle lines, whether they show a pregnant mother, her shoes or the way she carries her baby. New Cairo Atelier, February 1–21.

Noah Alireza, Saudi photographer, explores the unexpected results of the marriage of computers and photography, producing images at once familiar and foreign. XVA Gallery, Dubai, February 2–21.

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 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, DC., February 3 through May 4.

Anna K Mair: I: Woman: Flower displays macro flower photographs that are abstract, yet blatantly feminine, their shapes reminiscent of a womb or an embryo. Inspired by the words of writer Anaïs Nin, “And the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom,” the images, full of vibrant life, mirror the California photographer’s own blossoming. Bait Al-Baranda, Muscat, Oman, February 7–14.

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 AD 500. More than 190 objects are on display. Reiss-Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim, Germany, February 9 through June 1.

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, February 29 through May 18.

Coming March

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, March 8 through April 27.

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, March 9 through September 28.

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, March 14 through June 2.

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.

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

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 worldviews 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.

Coming June

Babylon elucidates the unexpectedly close intellectual and spiritual connection between the ancient Near East and Europe over a time span of several millennia. In the first part of this extensive exhibition, archeological artifacts, thematically organized, 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 Museum, June 28 through September 21.

Permanent

Objects of Instruction: Treasures of the School of Oriental and African Studies displays parts of its rich collection of artifacts known only to specialists: Islamic manuscripts, ceramics, African textiles and archeological finds. Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London.

The Saudi Aramco Exhibit relates the heritage of Arab-Islamic scientists and scholars of the past to the technology of today’s petroleum exploration, production and transportation, set against the background of the natural history of Saudi Arabia. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.