The Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1823, inspired by the model of Sir William Jones’s Asiatic Society of Bengal. From its earliest days, one of the chief ways the Society sought to promote research and interest into the histories and cultures of Asia was by establishing and making available its historic collection of…
PETER HIBBARD MBE More Than a Stuffed Bird Show - The RAS Legacy in Shanghai - In 1857 the founding fathers of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (NCBRAS) in Shanghai foretold that the city was destined to be the greatest and most influential city in the Far East. With some…
Anna Contadini is Professor of the History of Islamic Art and Head of the School of Arts at SOAS, University of London. She is also the Director of the “Griffin and Lion Project”. Her areas of interest are Arabic and Persian illustrated manuscripts, material culture of the Islamic world, and the artistic and cultural connections…
Lecture and lunch Saturday, 27th October China and Siam through the lens of John Thomson Speaker: Betty Yao MBE Time: 2:30 p.m. Venue: Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD Cost: £8 per member or guest, to include refreshments Lunch: An optional self-paying lunch will be arranged at…
Dr. Michell and Dr. Philon will give a joint presentation in the form of a dialogue on their newly published "Islamic Architecture of Deccan India", illustrated with a selection of photos from the book.
*** NB - the date of this event has been moved and will take place on Tuesday the 6th of November; NOT the 5th of November as previously advertised and printed in the Lecture Programme *** Wardrop Inheritance: a Journey through translation from Georgian The Embassy of Georgia to the United Kingdom and the…
Paper Jewels Postcards from the Raj by Omar Khan, a 518 Vintage Postcard Tour of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is co-published by Mapin Publishing and the Alkazi Collection of Photography (August 2018). Postcards were to people in 1900 what the Internet was to the world in 2000. Postcards were the world’s first mass transfusion of…
*** N.B. This is a joint event with the RSAA and will take place at the Brunei Gallery at SOAS *** Join us for the launch of Dr. Christoph Baumer's The History of Central Asia: The Age of Decline and Revival. For more than a hundred years, Central Asia was the heartland of the mightiest…
"THE PRINCE WHO BEAT THE EMPIRE. How an Indian ruler took on the might of the East India Company" published by Amberely Publishing June 2018. An acclaimed history of Empire and resistance. An incredible story of the fall of Surat, Mughal India's greatest port to the English East India Company and the moving story of…
This lecture will deal with the arrival of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam in China, and more specifically the recent revival of interest in Buddhist traditions, the vanishing of Christianity and the defiant survival of Islam. On the renewed objectives, the talk will offer how the new Chinese administration’s flag-initiative called 'Belt and Road' will widen…