On secondment from University 2024-2027
Position:
I.M. Pei Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture; Fellow of Wolfson College
Faculty / College Address:
Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John Street, Oxford OX1 2LG, UK
E-mail:
alain.george@ames.ox.ac.uk
Research Interests
- Early Islamic Art and Architecture
- Islamic Calligraphy
- Early Qur’ans
- Arabic Illustrated Books
Current Projects
- Manuscripts of the Qur’an and Devotional Books: The Al-Sabah Collection. London: Thames & Hudson (forthcoming collection catalogue).
Selected Publications
- The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus: Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam. London: Gingko, 2021.
- “A Builder of Mosques: The Projects of al-Walid I, from Sanaa to Homs.” In Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning: Essays in Honour of Robert Hillenbrand, edited by Melanie Gibson. London: Gingko, 2021.
- Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018 (co-edited with Andrew Marsham)
- “Paradise or Empire? On a Paradox of Umayyad Art.” In Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites, edited by Alain George and Andrew Marsham, 39-67. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- “Introduction: Umayyad Elites and the Foundation of the Islamic Empire.” In Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites, edited by Alain George and Andrew Marsham, xiii-xx. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018 (with Andrew Marsham).
- “The Dome of the Rock.” In Handbook on Jerusalem, edited by Suleiman Mourad, Naomi Koltun-Fromm and Bedross der Matossian, 185-197. London: Routledge, 2018.
- Midad: The Public and Intimate Lives of Arabic Calligraphy. Beirut: Dar El-Nimer, 2017.
Translated into Arabic by Nariman Youssef under the title Midad: Fann al-khatt al-‘arabi fi al-hayat al-‘amma wa’l-khassa. Beirut, Dar El-Nimer, 2017.
- “The Qur’an, Arabic Calligraphy and the Early Civilization of Islam.” In A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by Finbarr Barry Flood and Gülru Necipoğlu, 109-129. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
- “Coloured Dots and the Question of Regional Origins in Early Qur’ans. Part II.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 17, no. 2 (2015): 75-102.
- “Coloured Dots and the Question of Regional Origins in Early Qur’ans. Part I.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 17, no. 1 (2015): 1-44.
- “Direct Sea Trade between Islamic Iraq and Tang China: From the Exchange of Goods to the Transmission of Ideas.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 2015: 1-46.
- “Orality, writing and the image in the Maqamat: Arabic illustrated books in context”, Art History 35.1 (2012): 10-37
- “The illustrations of the Maqamat and the shadow play”, Muqarnas 28 (2011): 1-41.
- “Le palimpseste Lewis-Mingana de Cambridge, témoin ancien de l’histoire du Coran.” Comptes-Rendus des Séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (2011): 377-429.
- The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy. London: Saqi Books, 2010.
- “Calligraphy, colour and light in the Blue Qur’an”, Journal of Qur’anic Studies 11.1 (2009): 75-125.
- “The geometry of early Qur’anic manuscripts”, Journal of Qur’anic Studies 9.1 (2007): 78-110.
- “The geometry of the Qur’an of Amajur: a preliminary study of proportion in early Islamic calligraphy”, Muqarnas 20 (2003): 1-15.
