Islamic Art - The Barakat Trust

In the city of Varamin, some 50km southwest of Tehran, lies the Shrine and Mausoleum of Emamzadeh Yahya, a site of pilgrimage and veneration for Shi’i Muslims. During the nineteenth century, all of the shrine’s luster tiles, including its mihrab, were stolen and then dispersed to museums worldwide. The focus of this podcast is the project, supported by The Barakat Trust, that has sought to reunite...

On the periphery of Alexandria in the surrounding countryside is the Lake Maryut region, a vast expanse of flat agricultural land that used to be Lake Maryut, now just 18% of its earlier size. The lake separated the city of Alexandria from the rest of the country further south. Yet despite the shrinking of the lake and integration of the rural hinterland with the city during the 20th century the c...

This month’s podcast takes us to the far south-west of the Islamic world, to the Inner Nigel Delta in Mali where stands the Great Mosque of Djenné in all its magnificence. Join Michelle Apotsos as she discusses the story of this vibrant place of worship built solely out of mud and wood at the centre of a town with deep historical links south to the Atlantic coast and north across the Sahara desert...

This month’s podcast episode takes us through Uzbekistan along the route that The Barakat Trust took on our trip to the country in November 2025. We begin in Tashkent before moving to Samarkand and finishing in Bukhara, exploring a number of architectural sites, crafts and traditions along the way. In our discussion we ask how the richness of Uzbekistan’s cultural heritage came to be considered on...

This month’s podcast episode takes us to Ethiopia, specifically the rock-cut church of Wuqro Cherqos in Tigray where a tantalisingly cryptic piece of carved stone can tell us a whole story of interconnection up and down the Red Sea. This is a journey of merchants, artistic ideas, and political power in a place where you may not have expected it. Our guest is Mikael Muehlbauer, Lecturer in the Disc...

In this new podcast episode, the first in our series on Peripheries, we discuss the place of Armenian architects in the towns and cities of eastern Anatolia in the late Ottoman empire.  Our guest is Alyson Wharton-Durgaryan, Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Lincoln, where she has taught for ten years in the School of Humanities and Heritage. In 2026, she’ll take up a new two-year fellow...

Join us in this episode as we discuss the exciting finds from the Bedale hoard in North Yorkshire, England.  In 2012 a group of amateur metal detectors discovered a hoard of late 9th century Viking silver in Bedale. The items found were ingots, necklaces, arm-bands, and a sword pommel. What makes this particular collection peculiar is that when the silver used to make the items was scientifically...

Join curator Carine Juvin as she discusses the fascinating topic of her new exhibition at the Louvre: The Mamluks. Listen as she goes beyond the usual discussion of war and plunder, and dives into the rich world of Mamluk culture and society: from how the sovereignty of slave-soldiers changed monumental architecture, to what that world was like for women, and from how the Mamluks affected European...

Join Juan De Lara as he takes us on a tour through the colourful history of Arabia's Qaryat al Faw; a fascinating gem in the desert rich with treasure-laden tombs, frescoes of Egyptian goddesses, statues of Greek demigods, and marvellous inscriptions. Listen in as Juan discusses the wonders of the Incense Routes, the brilliance of the famed Nabataeans, and the importance of this site for unde...

Join Rizwan Iqbal as he explores how to get young people excited about Islamic art. Listen as he details the problems faced, solutions he has discovered, and the exciting work he has done as part of our Hands On Islamic Art project, which connects the wider UK to Islamic art collections, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Join Annabel Gallop as she takes us to the Indonesian province of Aceh, where she introduces us to the Ninefold Seal, and through it, takes us on a tour through Mughal power, Chinese trade, European conquest, and the wonderful artistic expression of the people of Sumatra.

Join Laura Hinrichsen as she walks us through her fascinating new research, reconstructing the great libraries of 16th century Tunis, once thought completely lost, by hunting down fragments scattered across the world. Listen as she explores the great conquest that destroyed these libraries, the sort of things you could read there, and the clever ways we might go about finding the contents of lost...

Join Rachel Dedman as she explores the beauty and politics of Palestinian textiles. Listen as she discusses her work on the current Material Power exhibition in the UK, whose public programme was part of our Hands On Islamic Art project which works to engage the UK public with Islamic art.

Join Leena Ghannam as she walks us through an often unfamiliar aspect of Gaza: its art, architecture, and monuments. Listen in as she takes us through mermaid monuments and golden markets, from temples of Aphrodite to masterpieces of modern art, exploring from the conquests of Alexander until the recent annihilation of many of these precious sites. Hear a side of Gaza we don't often hear: cre...

Join Konstantinos Politis as he digs through the long history of the Greek city of Chalkida, from its war-altering strategic importance to its lush date farms. Listen as he discusses his work, as a grantee of The Barakat Trust, exploring the town's Ottoman Heritage, discovering several mosques, and navigating the complexities of Greek identity and how it can incorporate the history of post-Cl...

Join Nour Hage as she weaves a story of textiles in West Asia, from bridal practices, to talismanic symbols, to Nour's own work as an artist. Listen as she discusses her work on Leighton House's recent Kheit exhibition, as part of our Hands On Islamic Art project which works to engage the UK public with Islamic art.

Join Nawal Nasrallah for a delectable dive into the world of Medieval North African cooking. Learn the connection between ostrich eggs and eggplants, how we have been stuffing birds wrong this whole time, and the brilliant historical stories behind these recipes. Listen as Nawal discusses her work translating centuries-old cookbooks to access an art of history that is so often forgotten. This podc...

Join Abdul Rahman Azzam for a discussion of espionage and honour, history and technology, as he explores the life and legacy of one of history's greatest leaders: Saladin. Listen now to learn where the man meets the myth, why he has endured so strongly in the popular consciousness, the extent to which he impacted the lives of those often thought unconnected to him, and how Abdul Rahman Azzam...

Join Farrokh Derakhshani for an inside look into the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture , one of the most prestigious architectural awards in the world. Find out how one is awarded this notable prize, hear about the latest winners, and learn how the creation of the award changed the understanding of architecture forever.

Join celebrated artist Ahmad Angawi as he explores how Jeddah has been influenced by many cultures, from Morocco to Indonesia, and how Jeddah has influenced them back. Learn about the cultural exchanges that pilgrimages brought, explore the traditional woodworking that Ahmad is helping to keep alive, and discover how traditional crafts can cooperate with this rapid technological world not only to...

Join Ulrike Al-Khamis for an inside look at the Aga Khan Museum's latest exhibition in Toronto, Canada. IMAGE? The Power of the Visual explores image-making over the centuries, exploring through the lens of Islamic art from across many periods and cultures. We are surrounded, in fact inundated, by images and we often have little time to contemplate their deeper meaning; IMAGE? aims to open th...

Join Anna Leone for a tour through time as she explores life in North Africa from the Roman era to today. Find out how (olive) oil has been driving the world economy since antiquity, how you can tell a lot about a time period by its frying pans, and how superstitions about their brothers defined how Amazigh women weave their textiles.

How did the discovery of oil transform Saudi Arabia's cities and its architecture? How can art and architecture come together to capture the spirit of modernism in a nation known more for tradition?  Join this conversation with Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz, two architect brothers, to discover how their curiosity to understand their home city of Jeddah led to the rise of "Saudi Modern,&qu...

Join Wael Sabry on his quest to save the ancient craft of Kundekari - complex wooden geometry. Sabry is  tracking down the few remaining master carpenters in Turkey and Egypt, trying to learn their carefully-guarded  secrets, hidden even from father to son.  Discover how he is using technology to save this remarkable craft from disappearance and inventing  new machinery that might give this craft...

Join Arthur Bijl, Hutton McRoberts Assistant Curator of Ottoman, Middle Eastern and Asian Arms and Armour at The Wallace Collection for a fascinating conversation about the social history of arms and armour. Discover how what we think of as 'weapons' today were once also fashion statements, works of art, and status symbols in the pre-modern age.