Art Informant

For the 30th episode of the ART Informant, Isabelle Imbert travels to mediaeval Spain with Dr Mariam Rosser-Owen, curator of the Middle Eastern Section in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Al-Andalus, Muslim Spain and Portugal, is particularly recognised for its rich production of carved ivory objects and its architecture, which Mariam and Isabelle talk about at length in the episode. They also discuss Mariam's role as a curator in the Victoria and Albert museum in London, the ongoing changes in the museum, and Mariam fascinating collaborations with contemporary artists.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Marian Rosser-Owen on Instagram and Academia
• Articulating the Ḥijāba: Cultural Patronage and Political Legitimacy in al-Andalus, Brill, 2021
• Mariam's publications on the V&A blog
• Mosque of Cordoba, information and pictures (Archnet)
• The Ardabil Carpet, Persia, 16th c. (V&A)
• Fatimid rock crystal ewer, Egypt, 10th-11th c. (V&A)
• Book of Gifts and Rarities: Selections Compiled in the Fifteenth Century from an Eleventh-Century Manuscript on Gifts and Treasures, trans. Ghada Hijjawi-Qaddumi, Harvard, 1997
• Ivory Act 2018
• Abbas Akbari
• Malek Gnaoui
• Shahpour Pouyan
• Sphero-Conical Vessels: Evidence from Baalbek (Lebanon), Valentina Vezzoli (Khamseen)
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Click here to see the reproductions of artifacts discussed in the episode.

In this episode of the ART Informant, Isabelle Imbert welcomes Dr Amanda Phillips, Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Material Culture at the University of Virginia. Amanda specialises in the consumption and trade of textiles in Ottoman Türkiye. It is the topic of her latest book: Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, published in 2021 (University of California Press). In the episode, they talk about the techniques and particularities of Ottoman silks, such as the so-called Studenica silk, and of course of crimson and gold-embroidered velvets made in Bursa, particularly well represented on the market, as well as academic career, book writing, and much more.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Amanda Phillips on Instagram and Academia
• Amanda Phillips, Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, University of California Press, 2021.
• Amanda Phillips, Everyday Luxury, Art and Objects in Ottoman Constantinople, 1600-1800, Verlag Kettler, 2018 (free access).
• Nurhan Atasoy, Walter B. Denny, IPEK. The Crescent & the Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets, Azimuth, 2001
• Work of Pr Suraiya N. Faroqhi on Academia
• Christie's, "Collecting guide: Ottoman silk velvet panels", 2019
• Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, "Silks from Ottoman Turkey", MET Museum blog, 2012
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

Click here to see the reproductions of artefacts discussed in the episode. 

In the episode, Isabelle Imbert welcomes Bharti Lalwani, art critic and perfume maker, and Dr Nicolas Roth, visual librarian at Harvard University Library, gardener and historian of horticultural knowledge and practices in India. Bharti and Nicolas have collaborated on an online exhibition: Bagh-e Hind, the Garden of India, a unique project combining art history and perfume making to recreate smells of Rajput and Mughal paintings. In the episode, they talk about the creation of the exhibition, smells, shared visual cultures, the accessibility of art history to all, and more. 

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Bharti on Instagram and check Lithrab Perfumery
• Follow Nicolas on Instagram and Academia
• Bagh-e Hind exhibition
• Ali, Daud, and Emma J. Flatt, eds. GardenandLandscapePracticesinPre-colonialIndia:HistoriesfromtheDeccan. New Delhi: Routledge India, 2012.
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

Click here to see the reproductions of artefacts discussed in the episode. 

In today’s episode, Isabelle Imbert welcomes Hiba Abid, doctor in Islamic Arts History and curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the New York Public Library. Isabelle and Hiba have known each other for a long time, so it was time to catch up on the topics that passionate Hiba, in particular the history of manuscripts production in the Muslim West, a region still often ignored. Hiba is now a newly appointed curator and gives the audience real insights into her role, as well as the particularities of the NY Public library Middle-Eastern collection and its significance. 

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Hiba on Twitter and Academia
  • Material Images and Mental Ziyāra: Depicting the Prophet’s Grave in North African Devotional Books (Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt), Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World, 1 (2020), 331-354.
• New York Public Library 
• Umberto Bongianino, The Manuscript Tradition of the Islamic West. Maghribi Round Scripts and the Andalusi Identity, Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

Isabelle Imbert welcomes Valentina Bruccoleri, doctor in Chinese art history and postdoctoral researcher of the Marco Polo Centre for Global Europe-Asia Connections at the university of Venice. Valentina is a specialist of Chinese ceramic, and more precisely, she specialises in the artistic interactions between the Persian dynasties of the Timurid (1370-1507) and Safavid (1501-1722), and the Chinese Yuan (1279–1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. In the episode, they talk about the production and trade of blue & white porcelains and celadons, of the circulation of ceramic forms and decorative motifs and of the reception of Chinese ceramics in the Persianate sphere, all from a Chinese perspective.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links 

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Valentina Bruccoleri on Instagram and Academia
  • "Éléments islamiques dans la porcelaine impériale chinoise du début de la dynastie Ming (1368-1435)", 2020
• Ruy González de Clavijo, ambassador of Henry III of Castile to the court of Timur (1403-1406) 
  • Historia del gran Tamorlan e itinerario y enarracion del viage, y relacion de la embaxada que Ruy Gonçalez de Clavijo le hizo, por mandado del muy poderoso señor rey Don Henrique el Tercero de Castilla, 1412 (Biblioteca virtual Miguel de Cervantes)
  • Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour at Samarcand, A.D. 1403-6, translated Sir Clements Robert Markham, 1859 (Google book)
• Didier, Michel, Chen Cheng, 1365-1457: ambassadeur des premiers empereurs Ming, Paris- Louvain, Éditions Peeters, 2012 (Amazon.co.uk).
• Rossabi, Morris, « Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia », T'oung Pao, 1976, vol. 62, p. 1-34. (jstor)
• A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era As Seen in Hu Sihui's Yinshan Zhengyao, Brill, 2010. 
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 Click here to see the reproductions of artefacts discussed in the episode. 

Isabelle Imbert welcomes Dr Eleonore Cellard, researcher in early Qur'anic manuscripts and specialist in codicology and palaeography. She holds a Ph.D. from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and have been working ever since on uncovering the secrets of the oldest Quranic manuscripts. In the episode, they talk about when and how the Qur’an was put into writings and the characteristics of early Quranic manuscripts, including the challenges to date and locate them. We also talk about an important project Eleonore is currently conducting on early Moroccan manuscripts, and the urgency of documenting them.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links 

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Eleonore Cellard on Twitter and Academia
• Eleonore's fundraiser (Go Fund Me)
• The Birmingham Qur'an in the University of Birmingham
• Leaves of the Monumental Qur'an attributed to Caliph 'Uthman (BNF Arabe 324)
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

Isabelle Imbert welcomes Daniel Newman, professor at Durham University, specialist of Arabic language and literature and passionate about Medieval Arabic cooking books and culinary tradition. For years, Daniel has been recreated Medieval recipes, especially from the "Garden flowers in elegant food" (Zahr al-ḥadīqa fi ‘l-aṭʿima al-anīqa), written by Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad Ibn Mubārak Shāh in Egypt in the first half of the 15th century. In the episode, he talks about his work as a translator, the link between food and medicine and his experimentation with Medieval cuisine.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links 

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Daniel Newman on Instagram and on Academia
• Daniel Newman's profile on Durham University's website
• "Eat like a Sultan": Daniel Newman's website where he recreates Medieval recipes
• The Sultan's Feast : A Fifteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook (Bilingual Edition), Saqi Books, 2020
• The Sultan's Sex Potions: Arab Aphrodisiacs in the Middle Ages, Saqi Books, 2014
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

Click here to see the reproductions of artefacts discussed in the episode. 

 In the first episode of 2023, Isabelle Imbert welcomes Dr Sterenn Le Maguer, archaeologist and specialist of the history of incense trade in the Islamic world before the 16th century. Sterenn is what we could call an archaeologist of smells, but she’s also the first archaeologist to come on the podcast, so in the episode, we talk about methodology and techniques of archaeology, but also of smell profiles and the importance of incense consumption in Islamic societies. 

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Mentioned in the Episode and Additional Information

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Sterenn on LinkedIn and Academia
• Archaios: Archaeology, Culture & Heritage 
• Anya H. King, Scent from the Garden of Paradise. Musk and the Medieval Islamic World, Brill, 2017.
• Axelle Rougeulle, Sharma: Un entrepôt de commerce medieval sur la côte du Ḥaḍramawt (Yémen, ca 980-1180), Archaeopress Archaeology, 2015
• SENSIS: The senses of Islam, research programme in the university of Utrecht
• "This Ancient Mud Skyscraper City is the 'Manhattan of the Desert'" National Geographic
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

Click here to see the reproductions of artefacts discussed in the episode

In the last episode of 2022, Isabelle Imbert welcomes Nilosree Biswas, Indian filmmaker and writer, author of Banaras: Of Gods, Humans and Stories and Alluring Kashmir: The Inner Spirit, as well as her latest book, Calcutta on your plate. Nilos grew up in Calcutta and has an intimate knowledge of its culinary cuisine, but through her book, she writes the history and tells the story of colonialism, communities, and particularly women. Through her knowledge and skills for storytelling, she paints the rich and complex cultural landscape of the city. This was a very enlightening conversation about an enlightening book.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links 

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Nilosree on Instagram and Twitter
• Get your copy of Calcutta on your plate 
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

This episode is part 2 of the interview with Dr Rachel Parikh, doctor in Islamic and Indian art history and curator specialised in arms and armours. In Part 1, her and the host, Dr Isabelle Imbert talked about her career as an art historian, her research on the Falnama manuscript in the Khalili collection, and her shift to curating. In this episode, they continue their conversation and focus on arms and armours of the Islamic and South-Asian lands. This is a very large field of inquiry, with few specialists and many unknowns, so Rachel was the perfect guest to talk about it and share her passion. 

Trigger warning: this episode contains mentions to killing and certain details regarding executions.

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Mentioned in the Episode and Further Links 

• Follow the Art Informant on Instagram and Twitter
• Follow Rachel Parikh on Instagram
• Rachel Parikh, The Khalili Falnama, London: Khalili Foundation, 2022
• Exhibition "Power and Piety: Islamic Talismans on the Battlefield", curated by Rachel Parikh
• Click here for more episodes of the ART Informant.

 Click here to see the reproductions of artefacts discussed in the episode.