Special Exhibitions
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Past Exhibitions
Pearls of the Parrot of India: The Emperor Akbar's Illustrated "Khamsa," 1597–98
October 14, 2005–March 12, 2006
Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for the Arts of South and Southeast Asia, 3rd floor
Learn more about this exhibition.
View images from this exhibition.
Poet Amir Khusrau Dihlavi's Khamsa (quintet of tales) was one of the most sumptuous manuscripts created for the great Mughal emperor and patron of the arts, Akbar. Twenty-nine surviving full-page illustrations from the manuscript are shared between the Metropolitan Museum and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The unbinding of the Walters’s manuscript for conservation purposes allows all painted folios to be reunited, together with some illuminated text pages, in this jewel-like exhibition.
Accompanied by a publication.

The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.