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S6E7: Pointed Tips: Maghribi Script and the Arabic calligraphic tradition, with Umberto Bongianino
Join Umberto Bongianino as he walks us through one of the western Islamic world’s least appreciated artistic treasures: its calligraphy. For years, Maghribi calligraphy has been treated as amateurish, archaic, and unruly in contrast with the highly theorised conventions of Mashriqi calligraphy in the so-called centre of the Islamic world of Egypt, the Levant, and Anatolia. In this episode, Umberto…
S6E6: A Shrine Online: The Case of Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin, with Keelan Overton
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…
S6E5: The Shrines of Alexandria’s Lake Maryut region, with Ismael Awad
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…
S6E4: Renewal in West Africa: The Great Mosque of Djenné with Michelle Apotsos
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…
S6E3: Through Uzbekistan: Histories of the Persianate World, with Fuchsia Hart
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…
S6E2: The Story of a Stone: Fatimids in Ethiopia, with Mikael Muehlbauer
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…
S6E1: The Armenian Architects of the Ottoman East, with Alyson Wharton-Durgaryan
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…
S5E8: Islamic Silver in a Viking Treasure Hoard, with Jane Kershaw
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…
S5E7 The Mamluks: A Louvre Exhibition, with Carine Juvin
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…
S5E6 Ancient Arabia: A New UNESCO Site, with Juan de Lara
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…
