I have studied:

The interleaving materials found in Moroccan and Iranian manuscripts.

The Persian manuscripts made of découpage or Qāt’i, from 1490 to 1550 (techniques, materials and definition of calligraphy as a devotion act).

The Indian drawings from the Pahari and Rajasthan regions (production, purpose and significance).

An Iranian Talismanic scroll dated 15th century in collaboration with Mounia Chekhab, curator at the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar et David Roxburgh, Professor at Harvard University.

“An Iranian Youth “, copy-painting from Gesina ter Bosch (1665) from the Rijksmuseum collection.

I am now focusing on the Northwestern Indian drawings from a Dutch museum, and I will be researching on the paper used, from the anthropological and analytical view points.

For these projects, I have collaborated with other scientific institutions such as the Qatar National Library, IRPA KIK Brussels, CNRS IRAMAT France, UCL Qatar, BioArCh York University and I have used various analytical methods e.g. XR- Fluorescence, Fibre Optics Reflectance, IR-Reflectography.

You can see a detailed list of my publications here.

  • Examining the incredible technique of Farih al-Bursa, a cut-paper artist (d.1617), who cut out and pasted small letters in an Ottoman muraqqa.
    Découpage from Fahri al Bursa (Ottoman Muraqqa)
  • Close-up view of a thread used for the endband in an Ottoman manuscript. The copper thread which is today corroded, was twisted around a core made of silk yarn. This type of metallic thread was commonly used during the Ottoman era in book production.
    micrograph of an Ottoman
    metallic endband
  • detail of a model drawing featuring the coronation of Rama, from Kangra (a Pahari kingdom in the lower foothill of Himalaya). The contours of the figures were pricked in order to allow further reproduction of the model.
    Detail of a model drawing
    The Coronation of Rama
    (India 19th century)
  • Detail of a page of the divan of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, c. 1490, Herat. The letters were cut out and pasted on the blue paper ground by the artist Abdallah after a calligraphy from Sultan Ali-Masshadi.
    Detail of a page of Iranian page made of découpage calligraphie, 15th century
  • micrograph of a piece of yarn of blue wool find in a paper from Kashmir in India.
    micrograph of a piece of yarn of blue wool found in a paper
    from Kashmir in India.
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