The sublime and the divine: Ashmolean exhibition explores Islamic divinatory art

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Henrietta Sharp Cockrell

Finial in the shape of the Hand of Fatima (Late 18th century to early 19th century) 

OXFORD, UK---An exhibition exploring the overlooked field of divinatory arts opened at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, last week (until 15 January 2017). For "Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural," Francesca Leoni, the museum’s curator of Islamic art, has gathered more than 130 objects from private and public collections throughout the British Isles, around a third of which are on view for the first time. Dating from the 12th to the 21st centuries, the exhibits represent a wide swathe of Islam, from China, South East Asia, Nigeria and the Sudan to the great cultures of Egypt, Turkey, Iran and India. Local British Muslim communities have also been involved in the exhibition and accompanying programme. [link]