The Art of Collecting

Speaker: Professor Nasser David Khalili

Baroness Valerie Amos, Director of SOAS University of London & Professor Scott Redford, Chair of the Islamic Art Circle Lecture Series invite you and your guests to the SOAS Centenary Islamic Art Circle Lecture 'The Art of Collecting' presented by special guest lecturer Professor Nasser D Khalili and afterwards to a Buffet Reception in the Brunei Suite.

Recording

The Art of Collecting by Professor Nasser David Khalili - SOAS Centenary Lecture

About the special guest lecturer, Professor Nasser D Khalili

Professor Nasser D Khalili PhD, KCSS, KCFO is a world-renowned scholar, collector and philanthropist, and leader in the pursuit of peace and inter-faith dialogue.

Since 1970 Professor Khalili has assembled, under the auspices of The Khalili Family Trust, eight of the world’s finest and most comprehensive art collections: Islamic art (700–2000), Hajj and the arts of pilgrimage (700–2000), Aramaic documents (353–324 bc), Japanese art of the Meiji period (1868–1912), Japanese kimono (1700–2000), Swedish textiles (1700–1900), Spanish damascene metalwork (1850–1900) and Enamels of the world (1700–2000). Together, the eight collections comprise some 25,000 works. These eight collections have been shown in over 40 major museums worldwide.

Professor Khalili has made notable contributions to the scholarship of Islamic art, having founded in 1989 the Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology at SOAS University of London, the first of its kind in the world devoted to the decorative arts of Islam. In 2005, he endowed The Khalili Research Centre for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East at the University of Oxford.

In 1995, Professor Khalili founded the Maimonides Interfaith Foundation, a charity which promotes peace and understanding between the three great monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Professor Khalili’s many honours and awards include the Trustee of the City of Jerusalem and the High Sheriff of Greater London Award. He is exceptional in having received knighthoods from two Popes – His Holiness Pope John Paul II and His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI – for his work in the pursuit of peace, education and culture amongst nations. He is also a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and has received the French National Assembly Dialogue of Cultures Award and the Rank of Officier in the Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur.

About the Islamic Art Circle

The Islamic Art Circle at SOAS began as an exclusive society, established in 1964 by Edmund de Unger. The original society was intended to have no more than fifty members, a larger number was deemed to be too unwieldy, as there were no fixed venues. The aim of the Circle was to visit private and public collections of Islamic Art and to generally raise public awareness about the subject. The Circle meets once a month during term time for lectures on all aspects of Islamic art, and lecturers come from all over the world.

Details of lectures are posted on the IAC website , and included in the monthly London Middle East Institute Newsletter.

Please contact the Circle Honorary Secretary on rosalindhaddon@gmail.com for a membership form and further information.

Image Credit:

Detail from 'The musician Barbad conceals himself in a tree' from the Shahnamah made for Shah Tahmasp, Tabriz, Iran, 1520s – 1540s Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, MSS 1030, fol 731 copyright The Khalili Family Trust.