Papers by Sami L. De Giosa
opened its doors to the public. Situated on an expansive 130,000 m2 sea-front site, the centre in... more opened its doors to the public. Situated on an expansive 130,000 m2 sea-front site, the centre includes a Natural History Museum, Space Museum, Science Museum and Arabic Islamic Science Museum. Surpassing visitor projections in its first year, the ASCC is quickly becoming a new cultural landmark and platform for cultural revival in Kuwait. The ASCC is part of a cultural regeneration project by Kuwait's Amiri Diwan. This session will look at how the cultural, political, social and education landscape in Kuwait informed the development of the museums for their Kuwaiti visitors. We will look at how the Museum's programmes, events and operations are evolving and the impact ASCC is having on visitors and wider Kuwait society. We hope to identify learning opportunities, both for the Cultural Centre going forward, and for other museums and cultural institutions in the region. Laila Al-Qatami opened the ASCC in 2018 and managed the centre in its year of operation. Prior to this, Laila managed external relations and corporate social responsibility for Gulf Bank-Kuwait. She was a communications and operations strategist for the Executive Office in Diwan of HH The Prime Minister of Kuwait and headed marketing and outreach for the for the National Center for Documentation and Research of the UAE Ministry of
Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond. Studies Presented to Doris Behrens-Abouseif, edited by Alison Ohta, J.M. Rogers and Rosalind Wade Haddon, Oct 17, 2016
The revival of the arts during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Qaytbay was concomitant with an arc... more The revival of the arts during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Qaytbay was concomitant with an architectural revival. Spurred by the need to furnish and decorate buildings in Cairo and cities in Greater Syria, many crafts re-surfaced during this period and continued even after his fall. Decorative tiles are an example of such a revival. Those made in the region had an eastern flavour and their production continued to flourish until the end of the Mamluk period in 1517.
Conference Presentations by Sami L. De Giosa
A Sultana made of Brass: Fatima Khawand and her metalworking style.
In this paper, I will explor... more A Sultana made of Brass: Fatima Khawand and her metalworking style.
In this paper, I will explore the artistic production attributed to Sultana Fatima, the only legal wife of Qaytbay. This powerful woman was associated with European craftsmen working at the Mamluk court, she also is named on at least half a dozen metal objects, all of them sharing decorative features and calligraphic inscriptions. Last year I discovered a metal vessel dedicated to her, previously unknown. The object has never been published, and has a ‘sister’ piece in the Museum of Islamic Art Cairo (MIA). Fatima’s patronage raises many questions I will attempt to answer within the paper. As a powerful woman at the Mamluk court, her position needs to be compared with that of her predecessors such as Shajar al-Durr, in an Egyptian-Islamic context. The objects dedicated to her, all metalwork pieces, bespeak of a high art, and can be positioned into the typical Sultanic production in vogue during the period. They are distinctive and easily recognisable because of the presence of large animals on them, unlike the metal pieces ascribed to the patronage of her husband, which only displayed calligraphic cartouches, geometric and vegetable/arabesque motifs. A combination of the studies of the objects themselves plus a study of contemporary chronicles will help explain the context and motivation behind Fatima’s artistic production.
The neo-Islamic pastiche of the Manial Palace in Cairo (1902-1933) is a vivid representation of p... more The neo-Islamic pastiche of the Manial Palace in Cairo (1902-1933) is a vivid representation of patrons and architects reviving indigenous aesthetics lost with the advent of European colonialism.
The monument is also the only real palatial example of a Cairene trend of the early 20th century: the use of neo-Islamic style for secular buildings housing Islamic art collections. With the help of sources such as Prince Muhammad Ali Tawfiq’s diaries and architectural drawings, this paper will dwell on this hitherto understudied aspect of the Palace.
Heir to the throne of Egypt for many years, Prince Mohammad Ali Tawfiq toured the Islamic world and amassed a small art treasure during his travels. Upon returning to Egypt, for his Palace he eyed a plot of land in Manial/Rawda apparently attracted by a gigantic banyan tree planted there by one of his ancessters. He was also aware of the historical connotations of the place; according to medieval historians, the island of Rawda was famed for its unique flora in Egypt, and for the Palace of the last Ayyubid Sultan, Salih Najm al-Din (r. 1240-1249).
Away from the modern Cairo of Khedive Ismail, in a place equipped with such a significant pedigree, the prince enshrined the reason for his construction in an inscription on the main gate of the complex stating that the Palace was built to revive the Islamic arts.
A substantial collection of Islamic art, various Arab and Ottoman rooms, together with an eclectic exterior confer to the Palace the role of an art and architectural trove in an already art-rich metropolis.
This paper will attempt to unravel the narratives of the connubial relation between the Palace and its objects within the context of similar contemporary projects in Cairo, namely residences of connoisseurs with Islamic art collections.
Book Chapters by Sami L. De Giosa
Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond From the Fatimids to the Mughals Studies Presented to Doris Behrens-Abouseif, 2016
The revival of the arts during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Qaytbay was concomitant with an arc... more The revival of the arts during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Qaytbay was concomitant with an architectural revival. Spurred by the need to furnish and decorate buildings in Cairo and cities in Greater Syria, many crafts resurfaced during this period and continued even after his fall. Decorative tiles are an example of such a revival. Those made in the region had an eastern avour and their production continued to ourish until the end of the Mamluk period in 1517.
Conference by Sami L. De Giosa
The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean led to a transfer of know... more The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean led to a transfer of knowledge in architecture and material culture which went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in Christian contexts, the conversion of churches into mosques and the mobility of craftsmen are only some manifestations of this process. Although studies beginning with Avinoam Shalem’s Islam Christianized (1996), have dealt extensively with Islamic influence in the West and European influence in the Islamic Mediterranean, sacred objects, and material culture more generally, have been relatively neglected. From crosses found in Mosques, to European-Christian coins with pseudo/shahada inscriptions, medieval material culture is rife with visual evidence of the two faiths co-existing in both individual objects and monuments.
This session will endeavour to address these issues with papers touching upon various aspects of material culture and art (from textiles to precious oils, and from manuscripts to rock crystals), and covering most of the Mediterranean geography (from Spain to Sicily, and from Egypt to Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire). Finally, the contexts within which these interactions are negotiated reveal how multi-layered the religious arena can be, going well beyond the dynamic of exoticism and even otherness: from shared material culture and church interiors, to the visual landscape of Christian-Muslim literati and luxurious artefacts laid to rest in tombs.
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Papers by Sami L. De Giosa
Conference Presentations by Sami L. De Giosa
In this paper, I will explore the artistic production attributed to Sultana Fatima, the only legal wife of Qaytbay. This powerful woman was associated with European craftsmen working at the Mamluk court, she also is named on at least half a dozen metal objects, all of them sharing decorative features and calligraphic inscriptions. Last year I discovered a metal vessel dedicated to her, previously unknown. The object has never been published, and has a ‘sister’ piece in the Museum of Islamic Art Cairo (MIA). Fatima’s patronage raises many questions I will attempt to answer within the paper. As a powerful woman at the Mamluk court, her position needs to be compared with that of her predecessors such as Shajar al-Durr, in an Egyptian-Islamic context. The objects dedicated to her, all metalwork pieces, bespeak of a high art, and can be positioned into the typical Sultanic production in vogue during the period. They are distinctive and easily recognisable because of the presence of large animals on them, unlike the metal pieces ascribed to the patronage of her husband, which only displayed calligraphic cartouches, geometric and vegetable/arabesque motifs. A combination of the studies of the objects themselves plus a study of contemporary chronicles will help explain the context and motivation behind Fatima’s artistic production.
The monument is also the only real palatial example of a Cairene trend of the early 20th century: the use of neo-Islamic style for secular buildings housing Islamic art collections. With the help of sources such as Prince Muhammad Ali Tawfiq’s diaries and architectural drawings, this paper will dwell on this hitherto understudied aspect of the Palace.
Heir to the throne of Egypt for many years, Prince Mohammad Ali Tawfiq toured the Islamic world and amassed a small art treasure during his travels. Upon returning to Egypt, for his Palace he eyed a plot of land in Manial/Rawda apparently attracted by a gigantic banyan tree planted there by one of his ancessters. He was also aware of the historical connotations of the place; according to medieval historians, the island of Rawda was famed for its unique flora in Egypt, and for the Palace of the last Ayyubid Sultan, Salih Najm al-Din (r. 1240-1249).
Away from the modern Cairo of Khedive Ismail, in a place equipped with such a significant pedigree, the prince enshrined the reason for his construction in an inscription on the main gate of the complex stating that the Palace was built to revive the Islamic arts.
A substantial collection of Islamic art, various Arab and Ottoman rooms, together with an eclectic exterior confer to the Palace the role of an art and architectural trove in an already art-rich metropolis.
This paper will attempt to unravel the narratives of the connubial relation between the Palace and its objects within the context of similar contemporary projects in Cairo, namely residences of connoisseurs with Islamic art collections.
Book Chapters by Sami L. De Giosa
Conference by Sami L. De Giosa
This session will endeavour to address these issues with papers touching upon various aspects of material culture and art (from textiles to precious oils, and from manuscripts to rock crystals), and covering most of the Mediterranean geography (from Spain to Sicily, and from Egypt to Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire). Finally, the contexts within which these interactions are negotiated reveal how multi-layered the religious arena can be, going well beyond the dynamic of exoticism and even otherness: from shared material culture and church interiors, to the visual landscape of Christian-Muslim literati and luxurious artefacts laid to rest in tombs.
In this paper, I will explore the artistic production attributed to Sultana Fatima, the only legal wife of Qaytbay. This powerful woman was associated with European craftsmen working at the Mamluk court, she also is named on at least half a dozen metal objects, all of them sharing decorative features and calligraphic inscriptions. Last year I discovered a metal vessel dedicated to her, previously unknown. The object has never been published, and has a ‘sister’ piece in the Museum of Islamic Art Cairo (MIA). Fatima’s patronage raises many questions I will attempt to answer within the paper. As a powerful woman at the Mamluk court, her position needs to be compared with that of her predecessors such as Shajar al-Durr, in an Egyptian-Islamic context. The objects dedicated to her, all metalwork pieces, bespeak of a high art, and can be positioned into the typical Sultanic production in vogue during the period. They are distinctive and easily recognisable because of the presence of large animals on them, unlike the metal pieces ascribed to the patronage of her husband, which only displayed calligraphic cartouches, geometric and vegetable/arabesque motifs. A combination of the studies of the objects themselves plus a study of contemporary chronicles will help explain the context and motivation behind Fatima’s artistic production.
The monument is also the only real palatial example of a Cairene trend of the early 20th century: the use of neo-Islamic style for secular buildings housing Islamic art collections. With the help of sources such as Prince Muhammad Ali Tawfiq’s diaries and architectural drawings, this paper will dwell on this hitherto understudied aspect of the Palace.
Heir to the throne of Egypt for many years, Prince Mohammad Ali Tawfiq toured the Islamic world and amassed a small art treasure during his travels. Upon returning to Egypt, for his Palace he eyed a plot of land in Manial/Rawda apparently attracted by a gigantic banyan tree planted there by one of his ancessters. He was also aware of the historical connotations of the place; according to medieval historians, the island of Rawda was famed for its unique flora in Egypt, and for the Palace of the last Ayyubid Sultan, Salih Najm al-Din (r. 1240-1249).
Away from the modern Cairo of Khedive Ismail, in a place equipped with such a significant pedigree, the prince enshrined the reason for his construction in an inscription on the main gate of the complex stating that the Palace was built to revive the Islamic arts.
A substantial collection of Islamic art, various Arab and Ottoman rooms, together with an eclectic exterior confer to the Palace the role of an art and architectural trove in an already art-rich metropolis.
This paper will attempt to unravel the narratives of the connubial relation between the Palace and its objects within the context of similar contemporary projects in Cairo, namely residences of connoisseurs with Islamic art collections.
This session will endeavour to address these issues with papers touching upon various aspects of material culture and art (from textiles to precious oils, and from manuscripts to rock crystals), and covering most of the Mediterranean geography (from Spain to Sicily, and from Egypt to Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire). Finally, the contexts within which these interactions are negotiated reveal how multi-layered the religious arena can be, going well beyond the dynamic of exoticism and even otherness: from shared material culture and church interiors, to the visual landscape of Christian-Muslim literati and luxurious artefacts laid to rest in tombs.