The Yarshater Lectures at SOAS

15, 16, 19 & 20 January 2015

The Yarshater Lectures at SOAS are sponsored by the Persian Heritage Foundation. These are a series of academic lectures dedicated to Iranian art and culture, which will be published as a book. The lectures and publications carry the name of Professor Ehsan Yarshater in recognition of his scholarly achievements.

Professor David J. Roxburgh teaches at the Depart-ment of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. In this lecture series he will focus on the visual arts—with an emphasis on the arts of the book—produced in Herat between the Timurid ruler Shahrukh’s ascent to power in 1409 and the early 1430s. The period has long been recognised in the history of Greater Iran as one of the most animated, vibrant, and productive in its artistic achievements. From a broad array of materials, the lectures examine key developments of the period interconnected through the Timurid prince Baysunghur (d. 1433), son of Shahrukh.

The first lecture presents the city of Herat as a site of artistic and literary production and introduces its institutions, urban and semi-urban landscapes, and some of the key figures involved in making and judging the arts. The second lecture is developed from the journal (rūznāma) recorded by artist Ghiyath al-Din Naqqash on the Timurid-Ming embassy of 1419-1422. Of greatest importance here is restoring the direct, specific impact of exchanges sponsored by Shahrukh and Ming emperor Yongle, to consider the nature of Timurid art after China. The third lecture reexamines the processes of artistic production in the workshop (kitābkhāna) through a corpus of drawings and the thus far unique progress report (΄arzadāsht) attributed to Baysunghur’s calligrapher Ja΄far al-Tabrizi. In the final lecture, the illustrated books of Baysunghur are the focus where binding, calligraphy, illumination, and narrative painting are coordinated to produce a new kind of object.

The Persian Heritage Foundation (New York) and SOAS, University of London, are pleased to invite you to:

Four lectures by Professor David J. Roxburgh of the Department of History of Art and Architecture and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.

‘In the Rays of Light of Imperial Favour’: the Visual Arts of Early Fifteenth-Century Timurid Herat

15 January Timurid Herat: The City as a Setting for Art and Literature

16 January The Timurid-Ming Embassy of 1419-22: Art after China

19 January Modelling Artistic Process: The Kitābkhānaand΄Arzadāsht

20 January Baysunghur’sBooks: Codifying Form and Aesthetic Value

Venue & time: 7pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre SOAS, Russell Square London WC1H 0XG

Convened by: Professor Scott Redford Nasser D Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology at SOAS

Organised by SOAS, University of London in association with the London Middle East Institute, SOAS Cover Image: “One brother is rescued, the other drowns,” from the Gulistan of Sa’di, 1426-27, Herat, made for Baysunghur. Reproduced with the permission of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, no. 119, fol. 15b.

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