Giovanni Curatola Dr Giovanni Curatola is a professor at the University of Udine, Italy and is the author of more than one hundred scientific publications on Islamic art. He curated the first general exhibition on Islamic Art in Italy in 1993. He also curated the exhibition al-Fann. Art from the Islamic Civilization. The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, and, together with the curator Salam Kaoukji, he organised the loan of 250 objects from the collection to the MFAH (Houston, USA). Islamic Decorative Arts: The importance of geometry. Islamic decorative arts are mainly based on three recurrent devices: calligraphy, arabesques (abstract floral patterns) and geometry. Geometry in particular seems to have been so…

A lecture about ” How Ideas Spread in Kuwait” presented by Dr. Hisham Alawadhi.  

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 will present a detailed account of the mashhad of Imãm…

Julie Bonnéric Dr Julie Bonnéric is the co-director of the French-Kuwaiti Archeological Mission. Since 2011, she has been in charge of the study of al-Qusur site, on Failaka Island (Kuwait). She is also a researcher at the Annemarie Schimmel College, University of Bonn (Germany). An archaeologist and pottery specialist, she has worked on excavations in Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Libya. Bonnéric holds a PhD in Islamic and Medieval History from the EPHE-Sorbonne (Paris), specialising in the history of light and fragrances in Islam. Christianity in the Gulf on the Eve of Islam in Light of Archaeological Discoveries Written sources reveal the presence of Christians in the Gulf, in…

Special Lecture in corporation with the Embassy of Brazil in Kuwait. Tuesday 24 October! 7 pm “Architecture in Brazil- An Overview” presented by Eduardo Pires Ferreira at the Yarmouk Cultural center.  

Jean Lambert Dr Jean Lambert is an anthropologist and an ethnomusicologist specialising in the music of Yemen and Arabian Peninsula, as well as the history of Arab music. He has served as the director of the French Center of Sanaa (CEFAS, Yemen) and the head of the Research Center in Ethnomusicology (Nanterre University). He published several books, articles and sound recordings, including Qanbûs, tarab. Le luth monoxyle et la musique du Yémen (2013) and The Cairo Congress of Arab Music, 1932. The Original Recordings (18 CDs) (2015). Around the Congress of Arabic Music in Cairo, 1932: The local and global impact of the sound recordings Almost a century after the…

عبد الله محمد بن جاسم المطيري. خبير إماراتي في المسكوكات الإسلامية، وباحث في التراث المحلي والخليجي، ومدير بيت الشيخ سعيد بن مكتوم آل مكتوم سابقا. يعمل الآن مستشارا لقطاع المتاحف والتراث في هيئة دبي للثقافة والفنون، وعضو الجمعية الملكية البريطانية والجمعية الأمريكية للنميات. شارك في العديد من المعارض المحلية والعالمية. كما يمتلك حوالي 15 ألف قطعة نقدية إسلامية تغطي العالم الإسلامي من الأندلس الى الصين تعود إلى 135 أسرة حكمت العالم الإسلامي، فضلا عن مجموعة من الطوابع الأثرية لعدد من دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي، والعراق. الآيات والشعارات على النقود الإسلامية لم تقتصر أهمية النقود في العصر الإسلامي على عملية التبادل التجاري، ولكنها كانت تستخدم للدعاية للدولة أو للخليفة. وكانت تحمل…

Alison Shan Price MBE Founder and director of One World Actors Centre UK and Creative Director of TAQA Productions, Kuwait, Shan Price has lived in Kuwait for 33 years working with multi-national artists to bring cross-cultural history alive through the medium of original performance. Later this season Shan Price will portray Dame Freya Stark in a new mono drama ‘Freya: Letters from Kuwait’. In 2017, she was awarded the MBE by Queen Elizabeth 11 in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to Dramatic Arts in Kuwait and the Middle East. Stepping Over the Horizon: Dame Freya Stark 1893-1993 Standing only 5ft 1inch tall in stocking feet, Freya Madeline Stark…

Salam Kaoukji Ms Salam (Sue) Kaoukji is the curator and collection manager of The al-Sabah Collection and the author of Precious Indian Weapons: And Other Princely Accoutrements, the latest book on objects in the collection. Kaoukji has contributed to numerous international exhibition publications about India and the jeweled arts, and has co-authored several exhibition catalogues for The al-Sabah Collection, including Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals and Al-Fann: Art from the Islamic Civilization. Precious Indian Weapons in The al-Sabah Collection This collection of nearly 200 jewelled weapons and priceless accoutrements from the Indian subcontinent was assembled over many decades by the owners…

Ziad Sayid Rajab Dr Ziad Rajab is the director of the New English School and a Tareq Rajab Museum board member. In addition to being a human resource specialist, he is involved in the arts, and has non-professional certifications in book binding, illumination, portraiture, oil painting and pottery. He is also an accomplished flautist. Incense Burners in the Tareq Rajab Museum Incense is inextricably linked to the history of civilisations in the Middle East and in particular, the Arabian Peninsula. From pre-Islamic times the region grew rich and fabled cities were established based on the production and trade of incense including frankincense and myrrh. As long as incense has been…