Zahra Kazani

Dr. Zahra Kazani specializes in medieval Islamic art and architecture with a focus on the Jazira region (upper Mesopotamia; present-day northern Iraq, north-eastern Syria, eastern Turkey). She is interested in the social and ritualistic contexts in which objects are perceived and consumed, especially expressions of religious piety, mysticism, and magic. Her doctoral dissertation examined the arrangement of written words in geometric patterns and placed them within the medieval scientific, magical, and popular imagination. Her research project at Harvard focuses on a large stucco panel from the Mosque of Nur al-Din Zangi in Mosul, Iraq. While the mosque no longer survives because of the recent ISIS invasions to the city, the panel—currently housed at the National Museum of Baghdad—sheds light on the rich artistic and cultural heritage of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Mosul.

Zahra completed her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. She has an M.A. from the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, Aga Khan University and from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She also has extensive museum experience, including with the Aga Khan Museum, British Museum, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Zahra recently defended her Ph.D. from the University of Victoria, Canada which was supported by the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholarship, part of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).