Scholarship
A selection of reports on the scholarships we have supported and funded in the field of Islamic Art, Heritage and Culture since we were founded in 1987
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Working in an Indian Archive: Indo-Persian Documents
Grantee: Hallie Nell Swanson In summer 2019, with the support of The Barakat Trust’s Barakat Postgraduate Student & Early Career Award, I travelled to Hyderabad to take part in the “Working in an Indian Archive” Indo-Persian Summer School, a workshop focused on reading Indo-Persian manuscripts, run by the University [...]
New Podcast: Secret Geometry with Wael Sabry
Join Wael Sabry on his quest to save the ancient craft of Kundekari - complex wooden geometry. Sabry is tracking down the few remaining master carpenters in Turkey and Egypt, trying to learn their carefully-guarded secrets, hidden even from father to son. Discover how he is using technology to [...]
Alain Fouad George
Alain Fouad George is IM Pei Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture and a Fellow of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. He taught previously at the University of Edinburgh (2007-17) and the Université Saint Joseph in Beirut (2005-7). His research focuses on early Qur'ans, Islamic calligraphy, and [...]
Hallie Swanson
Hallie is a third-year PhD student in the Religious Studies department at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Islam in South Asia. She holds an MSc in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA (Honors) in Comparative Literature and Society from Columbia University. She [...]
Kirsten Scheid
Kirsten Scheid is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the American University of Beirut and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Fine Arts and Art History. She researches Imagination; Islamic and Arabic Theories of Visuality; and Modern and Contemporary Art between cultural junctures, especially in the Middle East and North [...]
Fantasmic Objects: Art and Sociality from Lebanon, 1920-1950
Joining an emergent literature of “local art histories,” Fantasmic Objects offers the first English-language study of modern art in Lebanon. It is, moreover, the first study of Lebanon through art. An historical ethnography of “art acts” which played a significant role in co-founding the nation during French occupation (1920-1950), [...]
New Podcast: Decoding Arms and Armour with Arthur Bijl
Join Arthur Bijl for a revealing conversation about the forgotten meanings of arms and armour, once a global symbol of male status, fashion and identity. Arthur draws upon the magnificent Wallace Collection to challenge our understanding of what we think of today simply as 'weapons'. He tell us the [...]
International Women’s Day 2022
Celebrating Women in Islamic Arts, Heritage and Culture To celebrate, International Women's Day we have selected women, who over the last 35 years have received grants from The Barakat Trust, or have guided the charity as a Trustee or an Academic Advisory Committee Member. All the these women have [...]
The Altajir Trust
The Altajir Trust is a UK based charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), registered charity no. 1159070. The Trust supports exhibitions, publications, educational activities and other programmes related to Islamic culture and history and Muslim - Christian relations. The Altajir Trust was founded by His Excellency Mohamed Mahdi Altajir and is financed [...]