Deborah Freeman Fahid (Independent Scholar) – The Àger Rock Crystal Chessmen: Some Early Medieval Imports from the Iranian World?

*Please Note: This event was previously listed as taking place on the 22nd of January but had to be postponed at the request of the speaker.*

The talk will focus on a group of Islamic rock crystal chessmen from the early medieval period in The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. These fifteen chess pieces have long been recognised as masterpieces of early Islamic lapidary work. Like other Islamic objects made of rock crystal and ivory, they were discovered in a European church and have generally been regarded as the products of an Egyptian workshop. This talk will outline their extraordinary history and suggest an origin further east in the Iranian world.

Deborah Freeman Fahid is an Independent Scholar and former Assistant Curator at The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait.

She is the editor of the following publications: ‘Splendors of the Ancient East: Antiquities from The al-Sabah Collection’ (Thames & Hudson 2013); co-editor ‘Persian Painting: The Arts of the Book and Portraiture’ (A. Adamova and M. Bayani, Thames & Hudson 2015); ‘Arts of the Hellenized East: Precious Metalwork and Gems of the Pre-Islamic Era’ (M. L. Carter and P. Harper, Thames & Hudson 2015).