Previous Conferences

The Gingko Conference Series – intended for scholars, public figures and members of the wider public who are engaged with issues concerning the MENA region – fosters dialogue between the West and the Middle East, and promotes mutual understanding based upon our shared interests and concerns.

Home / Conferences / Previous Conferences

The First World War and its Aftermath: The Shaping of the Middle East

2014 Conference
Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and the Narratives of the Enlightenment

2015 Conference

Download Programme
The Mercantile Effect: On Art and Exchange in the Islamicate World During 17th ̶18th Centuries

2016 Conference

Download Programme
Religious Imaginations: How Narratives Of Faith Are Shaping Today’s World

2017 Conference

Download Programme

Follow Us

Click on the links below to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Image: Digital image showing a winged King Salman

Image: Digital image showing a winged King Salman (centre), his son Muhammad b. Salman (right), and Muhammad b. Nayef, nephew of Salman (left), all of whom hover above the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi state flag, the Ka‘ba, and the Abraj al-Bayt skyscraper, April 2015. Image in the public domain.
.
.

Each week we are showcasing a striking image from Gingko's Art Series. This week it’s taken from “The Image Debate: Figural Representation in Islam and Across the World” (edited by edited by Christiane Gruber, art series edited by Melanie Gibson)
.
.

In Saudi Arabia, legal opinions concerning figural images are more discordant and less strict than one might imagine. Some Saudi clerics have highlighted the positive qualities of visual likenesses, including photographic representations of the ruling members of the Saudi family. The thirteen authors of The Image Debate: Figural Representation in Islam and Across the World demonstrate the wide range of ideas and practices that have shaped Islamic attitudes towards imagery and its uses, ranging from the early caliphal era to the present, from Iran, Byzantium, and Africa to South and Southeast Asia. Edited by Christiane Gruber who contributes the first article from which this image is taken: ‘Idols and Figural Images in Islam: A Brief Dive into a Perennial Debate’, this book explores historic and contemporary image practices across Islam, but looks also at traditions within Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism.
.
.
Learn more about this book here: ‪ https://www.gingko.org.uk/title/the-image-debate/
.
.
Email ‪gingko@gingkolibrary.com to order your copy with a 30% discount. .
.
#Gingko #ArtSeries #Books #ArtBooks #Art #Islam #islamicworld

Image: Copper ewer decorated with enamel, Guangzho

Image: Copper ewer decorated with enamel, Guangzhou, China, 1776. Kalfayan Collection
.
.

Each week we are showcasing a striking image from Gingko's Art Series. This week it’s taken from “Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond: From the Fatimids to the Mughals”, edited by Alison Ohta, Michael Rogers, and Rosalind Wade Haddon. .
.

This enamelled ewer with its curious spout and colourful floral decoration was made, so its inscription tells us, for the Armenian Prince Hovsep in the year 1776. It forms part of an interesting group of objects each of which is branded with an inscription or monogram identifying it as having been commissioned by a member of the Armenian community, probably belonging to one of the network of merchant families which controlled extensive trade networks across the whole of Asia. Discussed by George Manginis in ‘Armenian Patrons for Chinese Commodities. Trade Networks and Cultural Exchange across Asia’, this article is one of twenty-three in Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond: From the Fatimids to the Mughals whichlook at topics as varied as epigraphy, book art, painting, textiles, metalware, ceramics, wood inlay, paper collage, lacquerwork and the built environment. . .

Learn more about this book here: ‪https://www.gingko.org.uk/title/art-trade-and-culture-in-the-islamic-world-and-beyond/‬ . .

Email ‪gingko@gingkolibrary.com‬ to order your copy with a 30% discount. .
.
#Gingko #ArtSeries #Books #ArtBooks #Art #Trade #Culture #islamicworld

Each week we are showcasing a striking image from

Each week we are showcasing a striking image from Gingko's Art Series. This week it’s taken from “Architectural Heritage of Yemen: Buildings that Fill my Eye”, edited by Trevor Marchand. .
. Image: The freestanding minaret of the Madrasa Mosque in the Old City of Sanaa, constructed in 1519-20. Photograph by T.H.J. Marchand . . As a young anthropologist Trevor Marchand, the mastermind and editor of Architectural Heritage of Yemen: Buildings that Fill my Eye, worked for a year as a builder in Sanaa. He joined a specialised team of minaret builders headed by brothers Ahmad and Muhammad al-Maswari. They constructed their first minaret alongside their father in the early 1980s; in order to better understand the unique structure of these buildings, they closely surveyed the mid-eighteenth century minaret of the Musa Mosque that stands in the heart of the Old City and is shown here. The collection of twenty articles in this book offer a remarkable insight into the varied history, use and meaning of Yemen’s many domestic and public places, ranging from the famous tower houses and the many citadels, minarets, mausoleums and mosques, some of which no longer stand today as a result of the destructive war that started in 2015. .
.
Learn more about this book here: https://www.gingko.org.uk/title/architectural-heritage-of-yemen/
.
.
For every copy sold, £5 is donated to the UNHCR Yemen Emergency Appeal. Email gingko@gingkolibrary.com to order your copy.

Each week for the coming period we are showcasing

Each week for the coming period we are showcasing a striking image from Gingko's Art Series. This week it’s an image from “The Mercantile Effect: Art and Exchange in the Islamicate World during 17th and 18th centuries” (edited by Sussan Babaie and Melanie Gibson).
.
.
Image: Silk textile, Chios, eighteenth century. Athens, Benaki Museum, 3912. © Benaki Museum–L. Kourgiantakis.
.
.
Beautiful silk textiles such as this one were collected by a wide-ranging Ottoman clientele, right up to the sultan who used them in his summer campaigns because they were light and easily transported. In her article entitled ‘From Genoa to Constantinople: The Silk Industry of Chios’, Anna Ballian looks at the manufacture of silk textiles on the island of Chios in Greece, which had its own raw silk production. Every house kept a loom and the islanders worked ceaselessly, even by candlelight in winter. By 1750 Chios silks were highly-prized and competing successfully with French textiles in the markets of Istanbul. The article forms part of a collection of papers that were first heard at the third Gingko Conference held in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and the Barenboim-Said Akademie, Berlin and were subsequently published in The Mercantile Effect: Art and Exchange in the Islamicate world during 17th and 18th centuries.
.
.
Learn more about this book here: https://www.gingko.org.uk/title/the-mercantile-effect/ and email gingko@gingkolibrary.com to get a 30% discount on this and all other Gingko publications. The book is available in both paperback and hardback.
.
.
#Gingko #ArtSeries #Books #ArtBooks #exchange #islamicworld