Congratulations to one of our 2022 grantees!
We are thrilled to provide a scholarship to the exceptional Shahira Yatim and fund her studies with one of our annual studentship grants. So what is the course?
About the grantee:
Miss Yatim is a bright and promising student, whose world-class education The Barakat Trust has funded for the last two years. Having grown up and studied in the Middle East, she is interested in the Islamic world’s intercultural architecture. She can now undertake her second and final year at SOAS, UK, studying the MA History of Art and Architecture of the Islamic Middle East with Intensive Turkish, where she will continue to further her academic talents ahead of a brilliant career in Islamic heritage.
Miss Yatim is particularly interested in late Ottoman architecture, both its construction and restoration. She is especially interested in how it expresses the intercultural mingling of Ottoman, local, and colonial ideas beyond the imperial centre. Having done much work on late Ottoman Egypt, her dissertation focuses on the restoration of the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem by the Egyptian conservation organisation, the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe: which she has discovered was their only known work outside of Egypt. She has a very promising future ahead of her, and The Barakat Trust is proud to support her and the future contributions she will bring to Islamic heritage.
About the course:
SOAS is ranked 13th in the UK in the 2022 QS World University Rankings for Arts and Humanities. The Department of the History of Art and Archaeology contains some of the world’s leading experts in the art history and archaeology of the Islamic Middle East, whose ground-breaking research informs and is informed by their teaching. Students benefit from the unparalleled knowledge and enthusiasm of staff. As members of the School of Arts, they profit from the insights of scholars and students working in other related fields, such as Music, Film and Media in the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. Students can also select from modules in other departments, taking advantage of SOAS’s unrivalled expertise in the languages, history, religions and cultures of the Middle East.
The MA History of Art and Architecture of the Islamic Middle East and Intensive Language programme covers an area stretching from Islamic Spain through the Arab countries, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia in diverse historical periods. The Islamic Middle East has given rise to an impressive material culture that continues in the present. This programme offers students an unmatched opportunity to study particular regions or categories of art, including Fatimid art; the architecture and urbanism of Morocco; Arab, Persian and Turkish painting; the calligraphy and illumination of the Qur’an; Mamluk art and architecture; the arts and architecture of the Ottomans in Turkey and the Balkans; and the material culture of western Iran. Archaeological issues of the Islamic Middle East are also considered.
In addition, the degree engages with trans-regional topics that extend beyond the Middle East, such as cultural and artistic relationships between the Islamic Middle East and Europe. Students can decide to study complementary courses on non-Islamic traditions of the Middle East and/or the Islamic traditions of other regions. This MA can be combined with intensive language pathways in Arabic, Persian, or Turkish; Shahira has chosen Turkish to complement her study of the Ottoman world and the self-expression of its officials.
Congratulations Shahira!
