Oleg Grabar

Oleg Grabar ( born November 3, 1929 in Strasbourg, † January 8, 2011 in Princeton, New Jersey ) was an art historian and archaeologist who was a leading authority on Islamic art and architecture. He taught at Harvard University and a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study.

He was the son of the art historian André Grabar. He studied in Paris and went in 1948 in the USA and made statements in 1950 both at Harvard and in Paris. In 1955 he received his doctorate at Princeton University. As a post - graduate student, he was instructor at the University of Michigan. 1953 and 1960/61, he was at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. From 1955 he was assistant professor, associate professor in 1959 and professor in Michigan in 1964 and then from 1969 until his retirement Professor at Harvard, from 1980 as Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture. 1977 to 1982 he was chairman of the Department of Visual Arts ( Fine Arts). 1990 to 1998 he was a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he was afterwards until his death Professor Emeritus.

1964-1972 he dug in Qasr al - Hayr al - Sharqi in Syria, a desert castle northeast of Palmyra ( he wrote the book about City in the Desert ). Later he dug up in Israel and Jordan. He dealt with Islamic art and architecture in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

In 1983 he was one of the founders of the magazine Muquarnas of Islamic art history.

He was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Medieval Academy of America. In 1996 he received the Giorgio Levi Della Vida Medal, 2001, the Charles Lang Freer Medal and in 2005 he received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Art Association.

He was married to the Anglistin Terry Grabar and had a son and a daughter.

Writings

  • The Formation of Islamic Art, Yale University Press 1973, 1987
  • The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem, Princeton University Press 1996
  • Masterpieces of Islamic Art: The Decorated Page from the 8th to the 17th Century, Prestel 2009
  • With Renata Holod, James Knustad, William Trousdale City in the Desert. Qasr al - Hayr East, Harvard University Press, 2 volumes, 1978
  • Sheila Blair, Epic Images and Contemporary History: The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Shahnama, University of Chicago Press 1980
  • The Mediation of Ornament, Princeton University Press 1992
  • The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem
  • Glen Bowersock, Peter Brown (Editor ), Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post- Classical World, with Glen Bowersock and Peter Brown, Harvard University Press, 1999
  • Richard Ettinghausen, Marilyn Jenkins - Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250, Yale University Press, 2001 ( first with Ettinghausen, Penguin Books, 1987)
  • Early Islamic Art 650-1100, Ashgate / Variorum 2005
  • Mostly Miniatures: an introduction to persian painting, Princeton University Press 2000
  • "Islamic visual culture, 1100-1800 ", Ashgate 2006
  • The Dome of the Rock, Harvard University Press, 2006 ( on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem)
  • Penser l'art islamique: une esthétique de l' ornement, Paris, A. Michel 1996
  • Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, 4 volumes, 2005, 2006 ( collection of essays )
  • Islamic Art and Beyond, Ashgate 2006
  • The Alhambra, Harvard University Press 1980
  • The Great Mosque of Isfahan, New York University Press 1990
  • Studies in Medieval Islami Art, London, Variorum Reprints 1976
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