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Dr. Alain Fouad George

Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence

Alain Fouad George is IM Pei Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Oxford (currently on long-term leave), Director of Lusail Institute in Doha, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His main research interests are the history of Arabic calligraphy (7th-20th centuries), the art and architecture of the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods (7th-9th centuries), including sea trade with China, and Arabic illustrated books (12th-14th centuries). He is the author of The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy (2010), Midad: The Public and Intimate Lives of Arabic Calligraphy (2017), and The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus: Art Faith and Empire in Early Islam (2021). He is currently working on the application of scientific analysis, notably DNA, to the study of early Qur’anic manuscripts, and on Arabic calligraphy in the late Ottoman Empire.

Lusail Institute, of which he is the founding director, is a new flagship project by Qatar Museums. It is being developed in collaboration with Georgetown University in Qatar and will form part of the future Lusail Museum, which is due to open around 2030. The Institute will foster advanced research and public events on the history of art and material culture with a focus on issues of power, cultural exchange, and transformation between the Middle East, Europe, and the Indian Ocean. The core interests of Lusail Institute revolve around the nineteenth century, but some of its future fellows and researchers may also work on other regions and periods.

Prof. George received his doctorate from the University of Oxford, having previously studied there and at the London School of Economics.