Dr Umberto Bongianino

Dr Umberto Bongianino

Fellow

Samir Sharma Associate Professor of Islamic numismatics, epigraphy and material culture

My field of research is the architecture and material culture of the Islamic Mediterranean, with a special focus on North Africa and Muslim Iberia (al-Andalus). I have published articles on the Islamic components of Norman Sicilian art; on ceramic production and trade in Fatimid Egypt; on Fatimid architecture in Libya (Ajdabiya); on Arabic inscriptions in various media; and on the manuscript culture(s) of the early and medieval Islamic period. My first monograph is titled The Manuscript Tradition of the Islamic West: Maghribī Round Scripts and the Andalusī Identity (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). I am currently shifting my research focus towards the numismatics, epigraphy, and material culture of later periods, including early modern Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. My main aim is to debunk outdated perceptions of, and narratives around, the arts of the Islamic West and their position vis-à-vis the Islamic East and Christian Europe.