I like newsletters and for months I have been trying to find one on Islamic art. This is the result of my search for the perfect newsletter on Islamic art. Spoiler: I decided to start my newsletter.
Category: opinions and thoughts
Gertrude Bell: a reflection on her legacy as a Person
The remarkable life of Gertrude Bell and her successes have been largely written out of history. A reflection on her role in the Middle Eastern history as an archaeologist, a nation builder, an explorer, and what her legacy can tell us about how women are perceived.
Off-topic: an Italian spin-off
I am Italian born and bred, as many of you may know. I have started this blog 4 years ago, in 2014, and since then, everything I have written, both here and on Twitter, have been written in English (with a lot of mistakes, no doubt). I started this blog in English for a couple…
Why everything is wrong with the new interpretation of the Blue Room in Palermo
The Blue Room in Palermo has always been fascinating to me. This is why I try to be as updated as possible on everything that happens around the room, and its interpretation. The last time I wrote something about it I mentioned that three scholars (Sebastian Heine, Chiara Riminucci-Heine and Sarjoun Karam) were interested in its…
How the Autumn auctions in London went
As always, also this year the Islamic Art Week took place in London. The Autumn series of auctions dedicated to Islamic and Middle Eastern art is now over and it’s time to draw some conclusions. No deep analysis, only a few thoughts. The main difference between this edition of the Islamic Art week and the…
Vikings and Square Kufic?
On the 3rd of October, the University of Uppsala published an article that was to generate much discussion on the social media. The title of the article was pretty sensationalistic, as it claimed that the words Allah and ‘Ali were written in Square Kufic on woven bands of silk in burial costumes found in Viking Age…
A brief note on the last auctions – Islamic Art Week, Spring 2017, London
The Islamic Art Week that the Bonhams, Sotheby’s and Christie’s organize twice every year in London is a fixed appointment for me. This year, as always, I followed the auctions and checked what happened in one of the most important events of Islamic art market in the year. And now, I just want to share…
A backward interpretation of the çintamani – one symbol, two origins
Twice a year I follow the auctions of the Islamic Art Week in London: I note down in my agenda the auction dates, browse the online catalogs, take notes on the lots on sale, save on Pinterest my favorites, and I check the final results. I do all this not because I am a collector,…
The light at the end of the tunnel – Islamic Art Market
Every year in London two Islamic Art Weeks are held in October and April, in which the three major auction houses (Bonhams, Sotheby’s and Christie’s) organize their four traditional sales of Islamic Art. The last Islamic Art Week, Spring 2016, took place in mid-April. The sales can be analyzed in different ways: the objects sold,…
The biased interpretation of pre-Islamic inscriptions by Haaretz
Today I decided to take the tram to go to work. Sitting there I started to have a look at Twitter, as most of the people around me were doing. It was then when my attention was caught by a title: “Before Islam: When Saudi Arabia was a Jewish Kingdom“. Saudi Arabia was…what? When? Am…
SquareKufic 