As though ruby eyes and diamond teeth were not enough to make the small gold head of a tiger truly shine, the goldsmith dotted its face with yet more gemstones and encircled its neck with emeralds and more rubies. Made about 1790, it is among the older pieces on display in “Treasures from India: Jewels from the Al-Thani Collection,” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By contrast, in one of the exhibition’s most recent pieces, diamonds cluster in a 2013 Cartier necklace with a 57-carat, drop-shape pendant, its platinum settings virtually invisible — all the eye registers is the liquid beauty of flawless stones. Woven into the dense fabric of history that separates these two works is a story of jewels and jewelry not just from India (as the show’s title states) but also for and inspired by India.

Read More: A Trove Both Precious and Powerful

Hear the word “Islam” these days and, for many, visions of beheadings, demagogic mullahs, hollow-eyed refugees and gun-toting jihadis are almost sure to follow. While hardly fair or truthful, this mental slide show is nevertheless an understandable result of the way Islam, or at least acts perpetrated by some in the name of Islam, is portrayed via the 24/7 news cycle. It was something of a balm, then, to visit the recently opened Aga Khan Museum in North Toronto the other day for a tour of its newest exhibition. “The Lost Dhow: A Discovery from the Maritime Silk Route” presents more than 300 artifacts from a cache of more than 50,000 recovered in 1998 from the remains of a ninth-century Arab dhow found at the bottom of the Java Sea.

Read More: The Lost Dhow

See also: Shipwreck Treasure Exhibit at Aga Khan Museum

Artifacts from the earliest and most significant Arab shipwreck discovered will be on display during an exhibit at the Aga Khan Museum. “The Lost Dhow: A Discovery From the Maritime Silk Route”, will be held at the Wynford Drive museum December 19 [2014] to April 26 [2015], marking its North American premiere. Jointly organized by the Asian Civilisations Museum of Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board, and the Aga Khan Museum, the exhibit of ninth-century Chinese artifacts offers a glimpse of rare Tang dynasty objects from the shipwreck found in Southeast Asia in 1998.

Read More: Shipwreck Treasure Exhibit at Aga Khan Museum

When the famed calligrapher Mir Emad was murdered at the Safavid court in 1615 – perhaps on account of artistic rivalry or perhaps because of his religious affiliations – an important chapter in the history of the calligraphic script known as nasta’liq came to a close. Mir Emad was not the originator of nasta’liq, which emerged in 14th century Iran as a likely marriage of two other styles (nashk and ta’liq), but he was nonetheless largely regarded as its undisputed master, attracting admirers among his Safavid patrons, Mughal emperors in South Asia, and countless others even long after his death.

Read More: Persian Letters

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is organising a major exhibition on the Seljuks, whose medieval Islamic empire expanded from central Asia into much of modern Anatolia in Turkey, without loans from Turkey, The Art Newspaper has learned. Experts fear that loans from any collections in Iran or Russia will also be missing in the Met’s show.

Read More: No Turkish Loans for Big Seljuk Turk Show Planned by the Met