went to see the newly renovated islamic wing at the met. some things i loved: (1) exquisite paintings from the shah jahan’s album where the attribution to the artist is written by emperor shah jahan himself (2) stunning mughal carpets that look and feel like velvet – the back is silk and the pile is knotted from pashmina wool, made from the fleece of himalayan mountain goats (this enables hundreds of knots per square inch), sometimes their themes were inspired by flemish paintings – as shah jahan was an avid collector of european art (3) contemporary iranian art including afruz amighi’s “still garden” which is created by the projection of light through a hand-cut stencil sheet of polyethylene (the material used to construct refugee tents). an online guide to the islamic galleries here.