The Arab British Centre is delighted to present a new course
‘History of Carpets from the Islamic World’
with Roberta Marin
May – June 2017
This course will be fully dedicated to the history of carpet production in the Islamic world. Through the analysis of the most iconic carpets, held in famous museums and collections in Europe and abroad, you will become familiar with threads, materials, patterns and trends as well as with patrons and places of manufacture. The history of carpets’ trade from the Islamic world to Europe, mainly Italy, and an excursus in the history of carpets’ representation on the paintings of the most celebrated Renaissance artists will complete the course.
4 May – 8 June 2017 | 6 weeks | 12 hours
Thursdays, 18:00 – 20:00
May: 4, 11, 18, 25 | June: 1, 8
Course Fee: £185
Class 1: Origins and Seljuk carpets
Class 2: Central Asian carpets
Class 3: Mamluk carpets and the trade with Europe
Class 4: Persian carpets and the revolution in designs
Class 5: Ottoman carpets and their representation in Renaissance painting
Class 6: Mughal carpets (OR VISIT TO THE ISLAMIC GALLERY OF THE V&A)
Below you can read about how Roberta Marin became interested in Islamic Art and Architecture and how her career developed from there.
After my BA, I had the opportunity to travel extensively in the Middle East and I became fascinated by the rich culture of the countries I visited. I enjoyed losing myself in the souks, wandering inside the major mosques and madrasas in Cairo, Istanbul, Marrakesh and absorbing a new vocabulary of patterns and motifs. I was inspired to do an MA in Art and Archaeology with a focus on Islamic Art and Architecture at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). It was an exciting year! I met excellent lecturers who were a source of inspiration and thanks to a scholarship by Ralph Pinder-Wilson, I had the financial support to do fieldwork for my MA thesis in Cairo. Following my MA, I worked at the Asian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, collaborated with the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, and I taught at various public institutions, such as the Birkbeck College, the London College of Communication, SOAS, Asia House and the University of York. The interest I developed in Islamic art and architecture during my travels and the year as MA student at SOAS have changed my life and I have to admit that they have been the best things that could have ever happened to me!