Fuchsia Hart: Fath Ali Shah’s Good Deeds – Shrine patronage in early Qajar Iran

The artistic patronage of the second Qajar ruler Fath Ali Shah (r. 1797-1834) is well known. Less studied is his patronage of the major shrines within his lands, in Qom, Mashhad and Iraq. This included the building of new courtyards, the gilding of domes and iwans, and the gifting of doors inlaid with rubies and emeralds. This lecture explores how the Shah’s lavish gifts to these shrines shaped his image as a pious and generous ruler.

Fuchsia Hart is a member of our Council. She has provided lectures and courses at The Wallace Collection, the V&A, the Royal Asiatic Society, SOAS, and Sotheby’s, among other places. In the past, she has worked for the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the Art History Department of the University of Warwick, and for the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul, and has spent time in Beirut, Damascus, Amman, and Tehran. She  currently holds a BA in Persian, an MPhil in Islamic Art with Arabic, and is working towards the completion of a doctorate at the University of Oxford, also in Islamic Art, with a focus on shrines in 19th-century Iran and Iraq.

The lecture will be followed by our Christmas party. This is a ticketed event for members only.