Professor Tarek Swelim shares a remarkable period in history full of political conflict, treachery, intrigue and, of course, beauty: Mamluk Egypt. Join us on this inspiring journey to discover the story of this fascinating dynasty.
Dr. Tarek Swelim is Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture and Coordinator of the Master’s Program in Islamic Art, Architecture & Urbanism, at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Dr. Swelim is the author of Ibn Tulun: His Lost City and Great Mosque (American University in Cairo Press, 2015) and is currently completing a new book on Mamluk history and architecture. He has published on various subjects on Islamic Cairo and Roman architecture including a contribution to The Arabesque: An Introduction (Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia Publications, 2018), which was launched at the British Museum in London in October 2018.
Dr. Swelim has taught at the American University in Cairo and Ain Shams University. He lectured at several universities in the USA and at Oxford University, and at Leighton House Museum in London in 2019 for the Barakat Trust.
He obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 1994, and an MA from the American University in Cairo in 1986.
This podcast is part of our Converging Paths and Arts In Isolation, a partnership with Asia House, kindly supported by the Altajir Trust, and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s Education Programme.
Image: The main spine of historic Cairo is lined with buildings from the Mamluk period (1250-1517 AD). It was common practice for the minarets of Mamluk mosques to be placed so that they dominated the vista, even of winding streets. Here, the minaret of Sultan Qalawun (1284-1285 AD). Photo: Mohammed Moussa, Wikimedia Commons.
