Oleg Grabar
Islamic Art and Culture
Professor Emeritus
School of Historical
Studies

Oleg Grabar’s research has had a profound and far-reaching influence on the study of Islamic art and architecture. His extensive archaeological expeditions and research trips cover the vast expanse of the Islamic world in Africa, the Middle East, and Muslim Asia. Grabar’s books include Epic Images and Contemporary History: The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Shahnama (1982); The Mediation of Ornament (1992); The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem (1996); Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post-Classical World (with Glen Bowersock and Peter Brown, 1999); The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 (with Richard Ettinghausen and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, 2001); Mostly Miniatures (2002); and eighty-three articles gathered in four volumes under the title Constructing the Study of Islamic Art (2005-06).

Ph.D., Princeton University, 1955; University of Michigan Faculty 1954-69; Harvard University, Professor, 1969-80, Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture, 1980-90; Institute for Advanced Study, Professor, 1990-98, Emeritus, 1998-; Giorgio Levi Della Vida Medal, UCLA, 1996; Freer Medal, 2002; Member, Medieval Academy of America, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, British Academy, Austrian Academy, Institut de France.