Bio Sabina Antonini since 1984 has taken part, in Yemen, in archaeological surveys and excavations of prehistoric sites in Khawlān al-Ṭiyāl and Ramlat al-Sabʿatayn, and of South Arabian sites, including Yalā, Tamnaʿ, Ḥayd ibn ʿAqīl, and Barāqish. She has contributed to archaeological campaigns in Saudi Arabia (Najran) and Ethiopia (Tigray) in collaboration with a French Archaeological Mission. She is the author of numerous monographs and articles on South Arabian Archaeology and Art History. She obtained a BA in Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Perugia (Italy), and a PhD in Archaeology and Art History of the Near East at the University of Naples L’Orientale (Italy). Synopsis The South…

Bio Abdul Rahman Muhammad Al Ibrahim is a researcher in the history of the Gulf, and he holds a PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Synopsis The history of the Gulf in general still has aspects and angles that were not given enough scientific research, astound example of such oblivion, is the relationship of the sheikhdoms that prevailed and vanished with others. The lecture explores that part of history scarcely discussed. The sheikhdom of Al-Zubair al-Najdiyah in southern Iraq was not given enough historical analysis and criticism. Despite its influential economic, political, cultural and legal role in the history of…

Bio Jamshid Tehrani is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Durham University (UK) and member of the Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre (DCERC). His research examines how culture evolves as it gets transmitted from person to person and from generation to generation, with a special focus on popular narratives, such as traditional folktales, urban legends and modern day conspiracy theories. Stories without borders: following the tracks of international folktales Some folktales remain forever rooted in particular times and places, whereas others travel widely, spreading across regions, countries and even entire continents. These stories without borders are known as “international types of folktale” and include such tales as Cinderella, Little…

Bio Stefano Ionescu As an independent scholar on Oriental carpets, the lecturer has dedicated almost twenty years to the study of the Anatolian rugs, starting with those which survived in Transylvania. In order to prove the Anatolian origin and to explain the presence of these rugs in Transylvania, Stefano Ionescu published a comprehensive study, Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania, with the entire collection of the Black Church, together with the most important examples from the Churches and Museums inside and outside Romania. As a distinct project the author is producing in Sultanhanı high quality Replicas of the originals in Transylvania, employing hand carded and hand spun wool, natural dyes and…

Bio Jan Tavernier is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). He obtained his PhD in 2002 at the KU Leuven with a thesis on Iranian proper names and loanwords in non-Iranian texts dated to the Achaemenid period (c. 550-330 BCE). This thesis was published in 2007 in a monograph. His research axes are inter alia: Elamite and Old Persian languages, linguistic history of the Achaemenid Empire and interaction between the Arabian peninsula and Mesopotamia The role of the Eastern Arabian Peninsula in the History of the Ancient Near East The Pre-Islamic history of Mesopotamia is quite well documented by a large number of…

Bio Dr Christian Robin, the founder of the French Center of Research in Sanaa (Yemen), 1982, is a highly acclaimed and widely published researcher in the history of ancient Arabia and Ethiopia. He has been a member of the national research center “Centre national de la Recherche scientifique” (CNRS) since 1970. He is the editor of the book : Alessandro de Maigret, Sabaʾ, Maʿîn et Qatabân. Contributions à l’archéologie et à l’histoire de l’Arabie ancienne (Alessandro de Maigret, Sabaʾ, Maʿîn and Qataban. Contributions to the Archeology and History of Ancient Arabia) (2012). Abraha: Myth or Reality The lecture investigates Islamic, Christian and Roman references to unravel the mystery that surrounded the…

Bio Naman Ahuja is a Professor and Dean of the School of Arts & Aesthetics at JNU. He is also the General Editor of Marg Publications which is India’s oldest publishing house dedicated to art and culture. He has curated some of the most important exhibitions of Indian art in the past ten years, including: The Body in Indian Art & Thought which was shown at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the National Museum in Delhi in 2013; and India & The World, in which 120 objects from the British Museum were staged in strategic dialogue with Indian objects at the CSMVS in Mumbai and the National…

Bio Blanche el Gammal is a researcher, and she holds a PhD (2016) with a thesis entitled: « L’Orient-Express, configurations littéraires d’un mythe européen » (The Orient Express, a European Literary Myth), directed by Professor Guy Ducrey (University of Strasbourg) and Professor Paul Aron (University of Bruxelles). She is currently teaching Literature in Nanterre University, near Paris. In 2014, she was one of the scientific advisors in the exhibition « Il était une fois l’Orient Express » (Once Upon a Time There was the Orient Express) at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. The Orients of the Orient Express The Orient Express, the most famous train in the world,…

Bio Dr Leila A’quil holds a PhD in the history of art and antiquities from the Sorbonne University in Paris, with honours. Her 1993 thesis was titled “Ancient Yemeni Ornaments Before Islam”. She made several trips to Yemen, where she documented the complete collections of the golden ornaments and seals that were present in the museums of Aden, San’a, and Sayun. In 2007, on the initiative of the Social Fund for Development in Yemen and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she photographed and documented all Yemeni jewellery in the museums of Aden, Dhofar, Ibb, Dhamar, Baynun, Zanzibar, Abyan, Lahj and Seiyun.  

Bio Kim Benzel joined The Met in 1990 and since then has worked on numerous exhibitions—such as The Royal City of Susa, Assyrian Origins, Art and Empire, Beyond Babylon, Hidden Treasures from Afghanistan, Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age, Jewelry: The Body Transformed, and most recently, Rayyane Tabet/Alien Property. She has co-edited and contributed to multiple exhibition catalogues, and co-authored a Met resource guide on the ancient Near East for K–12 teachers. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University in New York and previous to that studied at the Kulicke-Stark Academy in New York. For many years Kim participated in archaeological…