VCQatar hosted day two of the Islamic Art Symposium. Today's speakers were Marcus Milwright, Mohammed Al Asad, Catherine B. Asher, Perween Hasan, Linda Komaroff and Venetia Porter.
Marcus Milwright presented 'The Archaeology of Urban Water Systems: The Cases of Nafpleio and Nafpaktos in Southern Greece'. Marcus is Associate Professor of Medieval Islamic Art and Archaeology in the Department of History in Art of the University of Victoria, Canada. His presentation identified significant areas in which archeology has contributed to the study of Islamic water systems.
Mohammed Al Asad, presented 'Water Scarcity and Landscaping in the Islamic World; Contemporary Solutions to Historical Problems'. This lecture presented contemporary water conserving landscape project research components, which included gathering, processing, developing and disseminating information on water conserving landscapes.
Mohammed is founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centre for the Study of the Built Environment in Amman. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Architecture at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Catherine B. Asher - presented 'Out of the Desert; Water traditions in the South Asian Landscape'. This lecture explored sophisticated traditions of architecture associated with water from 2500 B.C.E. "If we keep on going like this we will run out of water, we have to be willing to conserve water through water harvesting". said Catherine.
Catherine is a professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota she specializes in the intersection of Indic and Islamic cultural practice by India's Muslim and Hindu populations.
Perween Hasan -presented 'Paradise Flooded: Water and architecture in Moghal Bengal'. The moghals known for their grand imperial architecture built a number of monuments in Bengal. Perween's lecture discussed the forts, gardens and the caranvanserais by the river and the evidence of the peculiar problems they had to cope with.
Perween is a specialist in architecture of the Indian subcontinent. After receiving her PhD from Harvard University in 1984, she joined the department of Islamic History of Dhaka University where she now serves as professor.
Linda Komaroff - presented 'Sip, Dip and Pour; Toward a Typology of water Vessels in Islamic Art' . Her lecture discussed some of the ways in which we can identify and classify water vessels and the extent to which their function might transcend or be restricted by such distinctions as time, place, material and decoration.
Linda is a specialist in Islamic Art, with a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; she has been with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 1995 where she is curator of Islamic art and department head.
Venetia Porter - 'Mysterious Inscription on Frozen Water- Early Medieval Islamic Rock Crystal Seals'. A significant number of early medieval amulets from the Islamic World are made of rock crystal- the material described by the Classical and early Arab authors as 'Frozen Water'. Venetia's lecture discussed these rock crystals seals within the context of magical objects where this style of inscription is also found.
Venetia is a curator of the Islamic and contemporary Middle Eastern art collections at the British Museum and was previously curator of Islamic coins in the department of Coins and Medals. She studied Arabic and Islamic art at the Oxford University and obtained her PhD on medieval history form Durham University.
Tomorrows speakers will be:Yasser Tabbaa, D.Fairchild Ruggles, Howayda Al Harithy, Agnieszka Dobrowolska and Walter Denny.