Richard Piran McClary
Dr Richard Piran McClary is a fellow of the British Institute of Persian Studies and has worked with leading universities and museums, most notably The University of Edinburgh. A prolific author, he has published numerous book reviews, monographs and journal articles, most recently a monograph entitled Rum Seljuq Architecture 1170 – 1220: The Patronage of Sultans. McClary has almost dozen more articles in various stages of publication, including Architecture of the Wider Persian World: from Central Asia to Western Anatolia in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.
Remembering the Imãm Yahyã ibn al-Qãsim Mashhad in Mosul
This lecture presented a detailed account of the mashhad of Imãm Yahyã ibn al-Qãsim. The mashhad, constructed on the cliff edge above the southern bank of the Tigris in the citadel of Mosul in circa 637/1239, was the most richly ornamented of the medieval tombs in Iraq which had survived into the modern era. It was destroyed in an act of cultural terrorism by ISIS on 23 July 2014. The important distinction between the ‘Alids versus Shï’ï associations of the building and its patron will be examined, and drawing on the limited published and archival images of the building, the internal appearance is reconstructed. Finally, a series of new plans and elevations will be shown in order to help preserve the memory of this important structure.