Sussan Babaie
The Courtauld Institute of Art, History of Art, Faculty Member
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- I am an historian of art, specializing in the arts of Iran and Islam. My diverse training—through Graphic Design (BA,... moreI am an historian of art, specializing in the arts of Iran and Islam. My diverse training—through Graphic Design (BA, Tehran University), the arts of the Italian Renaissance (MA, American University, Washington, DC), and Islamic Arts (PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University)—have contributed to a wide range of approaches in my research and teaching. My specialism on Persian arts and the early-modern Safavid art and architecture, is enhanced by my scholarly investment in topics in art history that consider trans-regional and cross-cultural issues. I have also written extensively about history and its utility for the study of contemporary arts of Iran and the Middle East.edit
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Th e increased presence of Europeans in Safavid Persia and especially in the capital city of Isfahan during the seventeenth century would imply the production of a kaleidoscope of observations of the foreigners. Th e scarcity of written... more
Th e increased presence of Europeans in Safavid Persia and especially in the capital city of Isfahan during the seventeenth century would imply the production of a kaleidoscope of observations of the foreigners. Th e scarcity of written Persian views on their European guests in contrast to the abundance of European chronicles about Safavid society has further fueled the expectation of 'oriental' apathy in modern historiography. In contrast to the discursive sources, Persian pictorial evidence of the European presence in Persia is surprisingly rich. Th is article focuses on a genre of Persian painting in which fi gural subject matter alludes to a sexual peculiarity of Europeans as observed by the people of Isfahan. Th e social agency of such pictures and their effi cacy as historical sources allow us to tease out the different ways Safavid urban society observed the Europeans and lodged a cultural critique on aspects of their sexual behavior even before the emergence of Persian polemics on the Christian practice of celibacy.
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From 'Islamic Art and Literature' eds. Oleg Grabar and Cynthia Robinson (2001)
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From 'Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art' ed. Francesca Leoni and Mika Natif (2013)
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From The Getty Research Journal (Number 3, 2011)
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From Encyclopaedia Iranica 8 (1998): 498-504
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From 'Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran: Art, Literature and Culture from Early Islam to Qajar Persia' eds. Robert Hillenbrand and Firuza Abdullaeva
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From Muqarnas, Vol. 11. (1994), pp. 125-142. BRILL
Research Interests: Entertainment Theory, Courts and Elites (History), Safavid Period, Ritual Feasting, Wall Paintings, and 7 morelate medieval and early modern history of European nobility and courts, Isfahan, "Safavid" Architecture, EI3 Shah `Abbas II, Feasting and communal consumption, Shah 'Abbas I, and Shah Abbas the Great
From 'The Great Empires of Asia' edited by Jim Masselos
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From 'The Hunt for Paradise: The Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576' eds. John Thompson and Sheila R. Canby
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From ' The Great Builders' ed. Kenneth Powell (2011)