Art & the History of Art Before the Taj Mahal: The Enigma of Akbar's Tomb

The Mughal emperors of South Asia built the most magnificent imperial mausoleums in the history of Islam. However, these mausoleums differ from one another as much as they do from the imperial burial practices of their contemporaries, whether the Safavids in Iran or the Ottomans further west. The inventive forms of the Mughal mausoleums, especially the grand mausoleum of Akbar, have long presented a puzzle to scholars. Dr. A. Azfar Moin will revisit the debates and offer a new interpretation.

Dr. Moin studies the early modern Islamic world from comparative perspectives with a focus on concepts and practices of sovereignty. He is Department Chair & Associate Professor of Religious Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses on religious transformations in the early modern Islamic world, rituals and practice of sovereignty in Islam, and theory and method in the study of religion.

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Georges Lurcy Lecture Series Fund at Amherst College, and the Eastman, Lucius Root 1895 Lectures Fund.