Barakat Culture Vulture
A selection of reports on the culture vulture projects we have supported and funded in the field of Islamic Art, Heritage and Culture since we were founded in 1987
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Matt Saba
Matt is Visual Resources Librarian for Islamic Architecture at the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries. His research interests include imperial building practices in late antiquity and early Islam as well as the history of Islamic art as a discipline. As a librarian he is involved in building MIT's bibliographic [...]
Impermanent Monuments, Lasting Legacies: The Dār al-Khilāfa of Samarra and Palace Building in Early Abbasid Iraq
This book offers a new interpretation of early Abbasid palaces as “impermanent monuments.” Synthesizing an array of sources, ranging from archaeological finds and classical Arabic literature to modern studies on the social and intellectual history of Islamic civilization, it reveals ways in which the Abbasid court designed, decorated, presented, and [...]
Hugo Cook
Engagement Coordinator Hugo Cook studied Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford (BA), and Egyptology at the University of Cambridge (MPhil). In addition to promoting the work of the Barakat Trust, Hugo is the Tutor of Egyptology at City Lit teaching courses at the British [...]
Ask The Expert: Paul Wordsworth
Paul Wordsworth is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford specialising in the archaeology of the medieval Caucasus and Central Asia, with a particular interest on the northeastern fringes of the early Islamic world. He is currently directing two archaeological projects: one explores the landscape of a provincial Abbasid [...]
Epic Iran: A New Podcast with Tim Stanley
Tim Stanley, co-curator of the blockbuster exhibition 'Epic Iran' at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, shares with us the challenges of putting together such an ambitious exhibition, and the rewarding reception it had among the public. The show is the most significant survey of Iranian art history [...]
New Instagram Guest Curator: Almoatasem Bellah Haggag
We are very happy to introduce our next Instagram guest curator, Almoatasem Bellah Haggag, who will be curating a series called "Cairo Inside Out". Almoatasem Bellah is an electrical engineer by training and a self-taught, avid photographer, based in Cairo. Having studied Islamic geometry for more than 3 years, he [...]
Ask the Expert: Muneer ElBaz
Muneer Elbaz has more than 16 years of experience in the cultural heritage field. He holds a master’s degree in architectural conservation from Cairo University in 2007. From 2005-2009, he worked in Historic Cairo and Lahore on different cultural heritage projects for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). Since [...]
New Podcast: Retracing the Silk Roads, with Christopher Wilton-Steer
Join photographer and writer Christopher Wilton-Steer on a colourful journey across the Silk Road to discover the cultures, peoples, traditions, flavours and beliefs he encountered during a magnificent four-month odyssey. Christopher Wilton Steer is a London-based photographer who is the Head of Communications at the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) [...]
New Podcast – Meeting for Coffee Ottoman Style with Doğukan Atmaca
Featuring in our new Young Perspectives series, Doğukan Atmaca explores the emergence of coffeehouses in Istanbul, and the way in which coffeehouse culture spread amid claims that cafés were the source of political unrest and seduction. Follow a fascinating story about the rise of this today commonplace institution to discover what [...]