June 2026 at The Barakat Trust

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In This Month’s Newsletter:

• Podcast and grant spotlight – The Shrines of Alexandria’s Lake Maryut region
• Recent publications
• Exhibitions
• Book recommendation

In this month’s podcast we take a trip through the western extremes of the Nile Delta in Egypt. Ismael Awad discusses the shrines of the Lake Maryut, an overlooked rural hinterland to the south and west of Alexandria. To map, document, and photograph the shrines, Ismael received an A3 Major Award from The Barakat Trust in 2024. The project was completed late in 2025 and now Ismael takes the time to talk in detail about the shrines he and his team surveyed across the Maryut region.

Ismael Awad is a geographer, cartographer, and GIS research specialist at the Centre d’Études Alexandrines. He completed his PhD in 2020 at Université Lyon 2 where his thesis was titled “The Western Margin of the Nile Delta: Geographical Information Systems on the Antique Settlements of the Maryut Region”.

Thank you to Samar Baiomy for the wonderful photos.

Recent Publications

The A4 Iradj Bagherzade Publication Grant provides funds towards the cost of a major publication on the history of the art, architecture and material culture, archaeology, and conservation of the Islamic world.

It is a delight to see the exceptionally high quality of these studies that have come out over the past year or are soon to be released.

Peyvand Firouzeh: Intimacies of Global Sufism. This book explores the fascinating material culture created by the Neʿmatullahi Sufi order as it spread between Iran and the Deccan region of India between the 15th and 17th centuries. These Sufis, followers of the poet and mystic Shah Neʿmatullah Vali, constructed shrines, small retreat cells, and ritual objects that combined local and transregional artistic languages, creating what Firouzeh calls an “intimate” aesthetic.

Sami Luigi De Giosa and Nikolaos Vryzidis: The Medieval Mediterranean. Between Islam and Christianity. This volume explores the intertwined artistic histories of the medieval Mediterranean, where Islamic and Christian cultures met, clashed, and blended. From the Iberian Peninsula to Egypt, the Mediterranean witnessed centuries of cultural exchanges, resulting in a hybrid material culture that often defies religious or geographic boundaries.

Deniz Türker and Hilal Ugurlu: Architecture and Interiors of the Harems in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul. This book offers a fresh perspective on the influential roles played by Ottoman royal women during the reign of Sultan Selim III (1789–1807). While Ottoman harem history is often clouded by exoticism and stereotype, Türker instead focuses on the political, social, and material worlds these women inhabited and shaped.

Worth Attending

A brief compilation of museum exhibitions and cultural events taking place around the world over the next few weeks.

Preserving Egyptian Heritage:

A Tale as Old as Time?

Egyptian Exploration Society. London. Saturday 27th June.

£15-£40. Barakat members eligible for discounted ticket.

For more information, click here.

Join a group of specialists with diverse historical interests as they seek to answer the question of how Egypt has sought to preserve its heritage from the very beginning. Moving from the Pharaonic, to Coptic, to Islamic medieval, to the present day, the workshop asks what preservation means and who it is done for. Including our Director, Seif el-Rashidi, who will offer his view on how heritage informs our future.

Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York.

12th June 2026 – 28th February 2027. Included in standard entry ticket.

For more information, click here.

This exhibition tells the story of how Islamic works of art made their way to European dealers, collectors, international expositions, and museums, introducing a new visual language to artists, architects, and designers. It is the first exhibition at The Met to explore Orientalism as its central focus, presenting not only easel paintings but also drawings, photographs, illustrated books, architecture, arms and armor, textiles, garments, glassware, ceramics, and metalwork.

‘The Revolution Continues’: Creative Practices Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. The Arab British Centre Online.

Wednesdays, 10th June – 5th July 2026. £225/£187.50.

For more information, click here.

This online course led by interdisciplinary theatre and performance scholar, educator, and artist Dr Nesreen Hussein explores creative practices since the January 2011 Egyptian revolution, and how they have been negotiated by Egyptian artists, cultural practitioners, and activists as forms of resistance, grassroots activism, or political expression. It unpacks some of the dynamics of ‘subversive’ creative practices that have emerged since 2011.

Book of the Month

A recent book title to pique your interest each month, carefully selected by The Barakat Trust.

The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince – Imran Mulla

Abdulmejid II was the final caliph of the Ottoman Empire, expelled from Constantinople in 1924 with the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. In exile, he sought to revive the caliphate through a marriage agreement with the Nizam of Hyderabad, a move that would unite two of the Islamic world’s wealthiest families who were amongst the most prolific patrons of Islamic arts. This book captures how this plan unfolded and, ultimately, failed with the Partition of India in 1947. Today, the former lands of the Ottoman caliph and Nizam of Hyderabad are home to some of the richest surviving collections and sites of Islamic art and architecture.