The show, a collaboration between the IMA and the Met (where it travels next March), presents some 200 objects borrowed from 68 different collections to illustrate Venice’s links with three Oriental dynasties: the Mamelukes of Egypt, the Safavids of Persia and Turkey’s Ottomans. From the exquisite ceramics decorated with traditional Ottoman blue-and-white floral motifs to the sumptuous silk carpets from Anatolia and rich gold and silver-threaded textiles made in Venice, the exhibit vividly depicts how the city’s contact with the Islamic world catalyzed intellectual, esthetic and technological changes. Visitors can see the similarities between the bright colors and geometric motifs of 12th-century Mameluke glass lamps and the pitchers and goblets created a century later in the Lagoon of Venice. In fact, Venetian artisans were so successful at appropriating Mameluke designs that by the 1500s the dignitaries of the Ottoman Empire were ordering all their glassware exclusively from Venice. “Glass provides a fascinating example of the transmission of artistry and technique over the centuries,” says Aurélie Clemente-Ruiz, co-curator of the exhibition.

The show also makes clear how much Venice owed its power to its geographic location. As the main point of arrival on the spice routes that began in and beyond India, Venice was at the center of European trade. Venetian merchants trained in navigation, accounting and Arabic, enabling them to develop strong relationships with their Eastern partners. Indeed, diplomacy was so effective that despite several conflicts–including the Crusades–Venice maintained privileged relationships with the courts of Damascus, Alexandria and Beirut. Sultans received the doge’s ambassadors, known as bailos, as trading representatives. “It is important to remember that during these 10 centuries, the periods of peace far outlived those of conflict,” says Carboni.

Beyond handicrafts, the exhibit tracks the mutual advances in philosophy, artistic expression and literary form. Visitors can marvel at Gentile Bellini’s fine portrait of Ottoman emperor Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople, who invited the Venetian painter to reside at his court in 1480. Bellini’s “Orientalist” influence is seen in the work of his students Carpaccio and Mansueti, two important Renaissance painters. One of the collection’s most astounding artifacts is the first printed copy of the Qur’an, published in Arabic type in Venice in 1537. “The exchange between two cultures extended beyond diplomacy and commerce to become an exchange of human heritage,” says Brahim Alaoui, the director of the exhibition. “We return to an essential period of history that spans the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, which is when ideas of modernity and a new European identity emerged. The Orient’s influence was vital to this new identity through its influence on Venice.”

Thanks to its unique vantage point, the city of canals had a sophisticated, expansive vision of the Mediterranean and the world beyond. “Venice, the pearl of the Mediterranean, was for centuries the bridge between two civilizations, and ultimately cosmopolitan, forward-looking and powerful as a result,” says Alaoui. This important exhibit allows visitors to see the fruits of the thousand-year dialogue between those two civilizations, which resulted in golden ages for both.