2024 - Postgraduate Award: Akshaj Awasthi

Akshaj Awasthi has been awarded a Barakat Postgraduate and Early Career grant to pursue intensive training in Ottoman Turkish — a rare but essential skill for researchers working on the connected histories of the early modern Islamic world. Akshaj is currently reading for an MPhil in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Oxford, where he is exploring the artistic and cultural interactions between the Mughal, Deccani, and Ottoman worlds.

Despite the growing scholarly interest in these transregional connections, few South Asian scholars have access to Ottoman Turkish due to limited institutional offerings. This training will enable Akshaj to access a wide range of Ottoman sources, enriching his research into early modern art, architecture, and material culture.

Akshaj is an Ertegun Scholar at Oxford and has prior research experience with museums and archives in India. His project promises to open new avenues for understanding how the Islamic courts of South and West Asia shared artistic languages and cultural practices, contributing to a more interconnected view of Islamic art history.

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