FORT WORTH, Texas — Mention the Middle East and what images flash by? Violence, war, deprivation.

But the Kimbell Art Museum's dazzling new exhibit reveals a brighter picture — of times when people of different faiths and ethnic groups lived in harmony, producing untold riches in the process.

Resplendent relics from the region that includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Egypt went on view recently in "Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art From the Victoria and Albert Museum."

Commonly known as the V&A, the London museum boasts one of the finest collections of Islamic art outside Cairo or Istanbul. And 100 of its greatest treasures are touring while the Islamic galleries are being refurbished. Many are extremely rare, which is why the Kimbell fought to be one of just three stops on a world tour that started at Washington's National Gallery of Art and goes to Japan from here.

Timothy Potts, director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, with works dating from the seventh through 19th centuries.

Sophisticated artwork

It's a panoply of splendor, with works — dating from the seventh through 19th centuries — that provide a panoramic view of a culture rendered all the more esoteric by years of strife that make travel to the region a challenge.

Superb ceramics, metalwork, glassware, carpets, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and ivories point to a level of sophistication on par with Europe at the time. And the Middle East was often more advanced technologically as well as culturally. Brass astrolabes — used to determine the direction of Mecca and hours for prayer — reflect a solid grasp of astronomy and mathematics as early as the 15th century. An exquisite copy of the Quran from seventh-century Turkey, replete with rich gold embellishment, would stand up to any illuminated manuscript in the West.

Secular vs. religious objects

The show's title, "Palace and Mosque," refers to the distinction between secular and religious objects, or figural vs. non-figural imagery. The Ottomans, who held the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina for much of this period, interpreted Islamic scripture as banning depiction of humans and animals. But such images abound in works commissioned for super-rich shahs in Iran.

Muslims dominated the Middle East, but they weren't the only people there, notes Kimbell director Timothy Potts.

"There were Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians," a pre-Islamic Persian sect, who lived peacefully among each other. "It's not obvious from flashing lights, but if you read the labels it's there."

In fact, Christians and Jews were so assimilated into Islamic culture at times that artworks made for them are often indistinguishable from those made for Muslims. But some items, including a brass chalice, a ceramic plate and the quintessential example — a spectacular caftan or vestment known as the Isfahan cope — are readily identifiable as Christian.

The Minbar of Sultan Qa'itbay (1468-1496), a 20-foot-tall wooden pulpit, is on display.

Shah Abbas the Great, Iran's ruler from 1588 to 1629, had Islamic craftsmen make the caftan as a gift to the head of the newly established Christian church. A sumptuous blend of silk pile and silver-gilt brocading, it juxtaposes expressive images of the Crucifixion with traditional Islamic scrollwork.

It's tempting to jump from one spectacular object to the next — a 20-foot-tall wood pulpit, or "minbar," inlaid with ivory; a ceramic tile fireplace done in "fritware," an Islamic invention made by grinding pebbles; and the famed 17-by-10-foot Chelsea Carpet with lavish floral and geometric motifs.

But smaller objects beckon, too, including a stunning 11th-century bowl with a Coptic figure depicted in lusterware, a metallic technique the Egyptians kept a carefully guarded secret, much as the Italians would later in the 16th century. And while much art from Basra and Baghdad was destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1250, the show includes tin-glazed earthenware that survived from the ninth to 10th centuries.

Five sections

Given the distance between our culture and theirs, this is not an easy subject to grasp. But the Kimbell makes it relatively simple by grouping objects in five sections: The Written Word; Courts and Courtiers; Mosques, Shrines and Churches; Ottoman Patronage; and Artistic Exchange.

The first section includes copies of the Koran, but the beautiful calligraphic inscriptions also appear on all types of objects, from architectural elements — carved wood panels and bright Bokara tiles — to a shroud that covered Mohammed's tomb at Medina and an enameled glass lamp from an Egyptian mosque.

Cultural interchange

The Islamic empire's vast reach produced a rich cross-pollination between countries, and this is the show's culmination. An earthenware bowl made at Malaga depicts a Portuguese ship surrounded by Islamic motifs. Brass pitchers found in Italy started as unadorned Netherlands objects that were sent to the Middle East for Islamic decoration.

Fritware is an Islamic invention made by grinding pebbles.

Signs of cultural interchange are evident elsewhere in the show. Blue-and-white ceramics combining Chinese and Islamic motifs include pumices in the form of Turkish slippers. A red lusterware vase by Italy's Giorgio di Gubbio carries the majolica technique invented in the Middle East to new heights.

Exotic oil paintings of a bejeweled shah and acrobatic harem women apply European methods to calico. Carved ivories from the Iberian peninsula include a 10th-century box with Islamic ornamentation and a silver border added when the Christians converted it to a reliquary.

Few visitors will leave untouched by this show.

"All the rather terrible things that are happening in the Middle East have raised people's general awareness of the region," he says. "I hope that will translate into an interest in understanding more about the culture."