Wondering if now is a good time to harvest your crops, betroth your first born or take that long-awaited pilgrimage? If you were in 16th-century Iran, the answers to all your questions and more would lie in the portentous pages of the Falnama, or The Book of Omens, now showing at the Smithsonian Institution’s Sackler Gallery of Art.

Ottoman and Persian omens, like the ones now featured in the exhibition, were advice-givers, decision makers and warnings to everybody from the Middle Eastern culture. To determine a seeker’s fate, it would be custom to first recite a couple of ritual prayers, wash yourself and then open a random page of the Falnama. Your omen would be the first verse you saw, or the last ode on the page. For example, if you were lucky enough to stumble upon the illustration of the sun, your fate would be auspicious, yet admonitory: “Know friend from foe, and do not feel secure from the plots of a sallow-faced, short man with a defect on his head or eye.”

So maybe the age-old saying is wrong; I guess you should judge a book by its cover.

Aside from avoiding the stink-eyed dwarf, omens would prescribe fortune seekers to perform ritual prayers, give alms and help the needy, all good works that would lead to their desired fate.

Five hundred years later, viewers may not be able to surmise whether Saturn’s position bodes well for their goat flock, but they can get a glimpse into the lives of the common people of modern day Turkey and Iran at the new exhibition. Anyone, from kings to commoners, would have used books like these, offering a perspective of the social mores of everyday Islamic life, something barely mentioned in other historical sources.

This particular art of divination originated from codifying various historical convocations into a set table. Some derived from the Quran, and so the words themselves were believed to be imbued with a talismanic quality. The words, along with symbolic and sacred letters and numbers, adorned shirts and metal standards that were carried into battle, hoping to protect the wearer from the enemy. Their importance as a protective force heightened around the Islamic calendar year of 1000, which was when it was thought the world would end.

Additionally, around this time the Shi’a Safavids and Ottomans struggled for power, which made for an unsettling era. A prediction for Ottoman Sultan Selim I foretold: “The calculations predict much warfare and many conquers in the coming year. Also, theologians will be unhappy and neglectful of learning, women will worry and be discontented and mystics will be rebellious and troublesome.”

And you thought 2009 was bad.

Only four major Falnamas have survived, three which are on display at Sackler. The exhibit begins by displaying these large books and span approximately three feet wide when opened. The rest of the illustrations, which include poster-sized pictures of various prophets — including Quranic and Biblical characters, villains, sages and signs of the zodiac — hang on the walls. The cultural significance of the Falnama lies in that it conceived a new, bold style of painting in Islamic art. Visually, they are a treat to look at because of their use of rich, dark, bold colors. Many of the paintings feature an azure background, which gold leaf accents dance upon. Angels robed in deep orange contrast against a blue background. Other common elements, like animals and deities with flickering halos, frolic on the page. Religious and cultural symbols are painted throughout the pages of the book, filling the page with detail and ornamental figures and complementing the text perfectly.

Some of the characters portrayed reflect Islam’s Abrahamic tradition and might be more familiar to western audiences. Images such as the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise and Sacrifice of Abraham praised the prophets for their faith in enduring suffering, which seekers were to look up to.

Characters such as Adam and Eve, generally seen by western audiences in a Judeo-Christian context, gain new meaning when viewed as important prophets of Islam.

Most striking is the portrait of Mary and the Infant Jesus. Like the Catholic icons dedicated to Mary, this piece features a similar posed woman with a tiny Jesus on her lap, but with an aesthetic different from any Da Vinci. Cloaked in her traditional blue, Mary is shown with darker, more eastern (not to mention more historically accurate) features.

More frequently depicted subjects were the Islamic prophets, namely Muhammad, his cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali, and the eighth Shi’a imam, Imam Riza. The Falnama’s illustrations portrayed these holy figures, careful not to commit idolatry, by concealing their faces with white veils. The Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey (miraj), one of the most significant and celebrated Falnama depictions of the prophet, show him in the center of the page, riding a half-human horse through the night sky. Flames intersperse throughout the space between him and the winged angels, all bringing Muhammad gifts. This piece praises the prophet, glorifying his heavenly ascent — a good omen for the seeker.

A picture’s message, whether auspicious or ominous, was characterized by not only the subject matter, but also by the artistic style suggesting a happy or doomed fate. Good omens typically featured bright, pleasant colors, and auspicious symbols, like the sun, or shapes of the hand of Imam Ali and the prophet’s sandals. Bad auspices, featured dark colors, like the gray Shaytan (Satan), the presence of evil. The pictures’ thematic elements underscore the advice of the omen, written on the facing page in “Farsi Style,” or nastaligh.

The calligraphy throughout the Falnama is the highlight of the total compilation, combining art with functionality. Arabic or Farsi students accustomed to the modern typeface will appreciate the sweeping beauty of the curved forms. The beauty of the Falnama is this practical beauty; text is manipulated to form a greater image. The words truly come to life.