Persian first gained prominence a thousand years ago, a language of literature, poetry and folklore that connected people across vast stretches of Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The Library of Congress today [March 27, 2014] opens A Thousand Years of the Persian Book, the first major U.S. exhibition to make such a wide-ranging study of the Persian language and literature. The landmark exhibition features 75 items drawn primarily from the Persian collection of the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division, one of the most important such collections assembled outside of Iran.

Read More: A Millennium of Persian Literature

From March 30 through June 29, 2014, the Dallas Museum of Art will host Nur: Light in Art and Science from the Islamic World. The DMA is the only venue outside of Europe to host this international touring exhibition of Islamic art and culture co-organized by the DMA and the Focus-Abengoa Foundation. Critically acclaimed by such publications as The Financial Times and the International New York Times when it premiered in Seville, Spain in October, Nur: Light in Art and Science from the Islamic World spans more than ten centuries and features 150 works of art and objects from public and private collections in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the United States.

Read More: Dallas Museum is Only Venue Outside of Europe to Host Major Islamic Art & Culture Exhibition

See also: How the Dallas Museum of Art Will Solve its Islamic Problem

See also: How the Dallas Museum of Art Will Solve its Islamic Problem

In assembling Art Amongst War: Visual Culture in Afghanistan, 1979-2014, the current exhibition at the College of New Jersey Art Gallery, Deborah Hutton discovered works that evoked feelings ranging from dismay to guarded hope. But Dr. Hutton, the curator of the show and an associate professor of art history at the college, also expects visitors to react with surprise. Not just at what is portrayed in the pieces, but that the art, which will be on display through April 17, even exists.

Read More: Despite Conflict and Repression, Creativity

For an encyclopedic museum, it’s something of a feat that the Dallas Museum of Art has gone 111 years without hosting a major exhibition of Islamic art. It has been nearly 40 years since the museum has hosted even a small Islamic art exhibition. That changes this month with Nur: Light in Art and Science From the Islamic World. But don’t expect that to be mentioned on the promo poster.

Read More: How the Dallas Museum of Art Will Solve its Islamic Problem

See also: Shedding a Light on Islamic Art’s Great Treasure

There’s a widespread fascination with tracking the fate of a human contrivance across centuries and regions — mapmaking, prayer rituals, the use of salt, and the like. The ways such ideas and inventions change, where they pop up and why, open unexpected windows onto the social pageant of our species. Carpets of the East in Paintings From the West, a little gem of a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taps into that fascination as it examines artistic cross-pollination between three types of 17th-century Oriental carpets and three Dutch paintings of the same era.

Read More: From Rugs to Riches

See also: Metropolitan Museum Displays Islamic Carpets Alongside Dutch Paintings

Sabiha al-Khemir was visiting a solar energy plant in Spain about four years ago when inspiration struck. Her host, the foundation of a Spanish company with interests in alternative energy, wanted her to conceive an Islamic art exhibition for Seville to recognize Spain’s 800-year history under Moorish rule and ideally to tie her concept into the Seville-based company’s work. Touring the solar plant, the Tunisian-born curator found her organizing principle. “It was an incredible experience,” Ms. Al Khemir, 55, recalled. “Light was everywhere.”

Read More: Shedding a Light on Islamic Art’s Great Treasure

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that it will house a new exhibit, Carpets of the East in Paintings from the West, featuring 17th-century Islamic carpets alongside depictions in Dutch paintings from March 11 – June 29 at The Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery, Gallery 458. As early as the 14th century, images of carpets woven in the East-primarily in the areas constituting present-day Turkey and Iran-began to appear in European paintings.

Read More: Metropolitan Museum Displays Islamic Carpets Alongside Dutch Paintings

A special exhibit that was featured five years ago at the Ontario Science Centre has returned with new features, more interactive displays, and plenty to do for all ages. Sultans of Science: 1,000 Years of Knowledge Rediscovered opened Friday, March 7, and will run until June 7, 2014 for visitors to learn about the important scientific and technological discoveries made by scholars during the Golden Age of Islamic Science.

Read More: Sultans of Science Exhibit Touches Down at Ontario Science Centre

Tobacco heiress Doris Duke, who died in 1993, built a fantasy compound in Honolulu to showcase an exquisite collection of Islamic art she’d acquired in her many travels. You can get an exhilarating peek into this elegant, rarefied life by visiting Doris Duke’s Shangri-La: Architecture, Landscape and Islamic Art at the University of Michigan Museum of Art through May 4th, 2014.

Read More: Islamic Art Exhibit Explores Doris Duke’s ‘Shangri-La’