August 2026 at The Barakat Trust
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Maghribi: Recentering the Calligraphic Tradition of the Western Islamic World
A Maghribi illuminated Qurʾān dated 1182/1768–9. Cairo, Dār al-Kutub, ms. Raṣīd Maṣāḥif 25, fol. 3b–4a.
Podcast
Join Umberto Bongianino as he walks us through one of the western Islamic world’s least appreciated artistic treasures: its calligraphy. For years, Maghribi calligraphy has been treated as amateurish, archaic, and unruly in contrast with the highly theorised conventions of Mashriqi calligraphy in the so-called centre of the Islamic world of Egypt, the Levant, and Anatolia.
In this episode, Umberto challenges this view, emphasising the interaction of Maghribi calligraphy with multiple traditions specific to its geographical milieu.
Maghribi calligraphy is traditionally written with a pointed tip (Ar. قلم مدبب) meaning that the line is always of equal thickness. It features distinctive curved letter forms, extended horizontals, and notation of certain Arabic letters below the main body.
Umberto’s work on Maghribi calligraphy forms part of CallFront, a collaborative research project that attempts to draw attention to the calligraphic traditions of the “frontiers” of the Islamic world, amongst them Maghribi, but also sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, and China.
Umberto Bongianino is Samir Shamma Associate Professor of Numismatics, Epigraphy, and Material Culture at the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford. His research focuses on Arabic epigraphy, palaeography, the aesthetic of inscribed objects, and the arts of the book in the western Islamic world. His recent monograph is titled The Manuscript Tradition of the Islamic West: Maghribī Round Scripts and the Andalusī Identity.
2026 Grantee: A2
Edoardo Paulo Ferrari
Study and Architectural Analysis of the Historical Mosque in Silmo village, Ladakh
This summer, Edoardo will travel to Ladakh with the rest of his team from India and Italy to document and develop a conservation plan for a rare late 19th-century Purki mosque in Silmo village, Ladakh, a stone-and-wood structure shaped by Baltistani and Kashmiri influences. The work combines a 3D survey, photographic documentation of its wood carvings, and oral history collection with a conservation plan co-developed with local stakeholders, addressing the urgent threat facing one of the region’s last traditional mosques as climate pressures put this architectural heritage increasingly at risk.
The mosque is an almost unique example of a Purki vernacular construction from the late 19th century with influences from Baltistan and Kashmir made in stone and wood. Silmo village is situated in the Kargil District of Ladakh, close to the Indus River. It is a remote hamlet of approximately 1,600 inhabitants, set in a valley where houses and agricultural terraces are supported by dry stone retaining walls.
Above – Village of Phyang (Credit: Bernard Gagnon)
Edoardo is an independent researcher and conservation architect specialising in traditional construction techniques, with extensive fieldwork experience across the Western Himalayas and Iran. He holds a PhD in Architectural Anthropology from Oxford Brookes University. Edoardo has contributed to multidisciplinary projects worldwide, learning hands-on alongside craftspeople through an apprentice-style ethnographic approach. His research spans mud brick construction in South Khorasan, Iran; dry stone walling in Italy and the UK; and carpentry traditions in Eastern Baltistan, India. Through his documentation and conservation work with the Achi Association India in Ladakh, he has focused primarily on Buddhist temples and stupas, while also consulting on domestic architecture projects in the region.
Grantee Spotlight: 2023
Mohd Affendi Shafri
Survey of the Wan Mohd Saghir Collection at Khazanah Fathaniyah, Kuala Lumpur
Mohd Affendi Shafri was the recipient of an A3 grant in 2023 to survey the Malay and Javi manuscripts of the Wan Mohd Saghir Collection at Khazanah Fathaniyah while providing personnel at its institution with training in cataloguing, handling, and storage of manuscripts.
Named after its collector, Wan Mohd Saghir, the collection features materials from Sheikh Ahmad al-Fathani (d.1912), an important scholarly figure in religious sciences around the Malay peninsula and archipelago. The collection features over 1000 materials from the 19th century of which 500 were part of this project.
Amongst the grant’s activities were two workshops for research assistants of Khazanah Fathaniya on cataloguing and material preservation, the publication of a manuscript catalogue and rare books catalogue, and two seminars presenting the findings of the project and the uncovered manuscripts.
Shafri’s work, alongside his colleagues, revealed previously unknown manuscripts, coins, printed books, and written correspondence. Maybe even more importantly, it showed that the community cared abouYour paragraph textt the preservation of this material for future generations.
Worth Attending
A brief compilation of museum exhibitions and cultural events taking place around the world over the next few weeks.
Game On!
The Aga Khan Museum. Toronto.
Until 7th September. Entrance included in regular admission.
Visit this interactive exhibition in at the AKM this summer celebrating the rich diversity of games that have entertained humans around the word throughout. Games and the objects used to play them are a form of art reflective of the culture in which they are situated. For more information, click here.
