Over the course of five decades, the Khalili Collections has worked with many of the world’s leading authorities in the fields relating to each of the Eight Collections. The team comprises eminent scholars, curators, restorers, managers and editors.
Nahla Nassar Curator and Registrar
Dr Julian Raby Director of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; leading authority on Islamic art
Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili (Chair)
Professor J.M. Rogers
Ralph Pinder-Wilson †
B.W. Robinson †
Robert Skelton
Nahla Nassar
Tim Stanley
Dr Rebecca M. Foote
Dr Pedro Moura Carvalho
Rudolf Abraham Former Deputy Curator, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London
David Alexander Former Research Associate, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; specialist in Islamic arms and armour
Manijeh Bayani Specialist in Persian and Arabic epigraphy; contributor to most of the catalogues in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art series
Professor Doris Behrens-Abouseif Former Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in Mamluk arts and history
Professor Sheila S. Blair Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts; specialist in Persian arts
Dr François de Blois Senior Research Associate, University College London; specialist in Semitic and Iranian languages and on the history of religions in the Near East in pre-modern times
Christopher Cavey Former Curator, Gemmological Association of Great Britain collections and member of its governing Council; special interest in the history of gemstones
Nada Chaldecott Art historian with a special interest in the arts of Central Asia and India
Henrietta Sharp Cockrell Former specialist in the Islamic Art Department, Christie’s, South Kensington, London
Dr Steven Cohen Independent textile historian, researcher, lecturer and writer specialising in the carpets and textiles of the Indian subcontinent
Professor Anna Contadini Professor of the History of Islamic Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in Islamic works on paper
Georgette Cornu † Specialist in the technical analysis of textiles from the Arab world
Mitchell Abdul Karim Crites Art historian whose research primarily focuses on Mughal art, architecture and garden design; instrumental in a major revival of Indian and Islamic arts and crafts across West and South Asia
Jacqueline Coulter Formerly a Senior Director at Sotheby’s, London; specializes in carpets and textiles of the Islamic world
Professor Walter B. Denny Professor of Islamic Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Charles Grant Ellis Research Associate in Oriental Carpets, The Textile Museum, Washington D.C.; specialist in Ottoman arts and Islamic carpets and textiles
Professor François Déroche Fellow of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; Director of studies, Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris; specialist in early Qur’ans and the history of the handwritten book in the Islamic world
Dr Layla Diba Former Director, Negarestan Museum, Tehran; former Hagop Kevorkian Curator of Islamic Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; independent curator and art advisor, with a special interest in the arts and culture of Qajar and modern Iran
Dr Rebecca M. Foote Head of Publications, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; specialist in early Islamic archaeology
Deborah Freeman Assistant Curator, Al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait; specialist in Arabic and Persian manuscripts
Dr Melanie Gibson Participates in a range of academic activities that include teaching and publishing, including series editor of the Gingko Library Art Series; specialist in ceramics and glass of the Islamic world
Dr Sidney M. Goldstein Former Associate Director, St Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri; specialist in early Islamic glass
Dr Javad Golmohammadi Former Lecturer, Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Tehran University; independent Islamic art historian based in London working on a publication on wooden religious buildings and carved woodwork of Islamic Iran
Tony Goodwin Specialist in Byzantine and early Islamic coinage of the 7th century
Hero Granger-Taylor Historian of early textiles, London; recent work centres on excavated finds, particularly from desert sites in Egypt and the Near East
Professor Ernst J. Grube † Professor Emeritus in the History of Islamic Art, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Venice; first Curator of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; specialist in Islamic painting and ceramics
Dr Rosalind Wade Haddon Researcher on the Samarra Finds Project, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; specialist in Islamic ceramics of the 14th century
Stephen Hirtenstein Publications Director, Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society; co-founder of Anqa Publishing; specialist in the life, thought and writings of Ibn ‘Arabi
Rahul Jain Textile researcher and historian, New Delhi; specialist in technical and historical aspects of the Indian drawloom, the woven silks of Sultanate India, as well as the court velvets, sashes and luxury fabrics of Mughal India
Dr David James † Former Islamic Curator, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; specialist in manuscripts of the Qur’an
Professor Ludvik Kalus Honorary Professor of the History of the Medieval East, University of Paris-Sorbonne; founder and director of the Thesaurus of Islamic Epigraphy project; specialist in Arabic epigraphy
Dr Derek Kennet Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, Durham University; archaeologist working in India and the Middle East
Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili Founder of the Khalili Collections; Honorary Fellow of the University of London; Visiting Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Shireen Ellinger Contributor the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; interested in art and architecture of the Mamluk period with a special focus on textiles and metalwork
Professor Geoffrey Khan Fellow of the British Academy; Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge University; fields of expertise include Arabic papyrology
Dr Mark G. Kramarovsky Senior Researcher, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; archaeologist in the Crimea and authority on the arts of the Golden Horde
Dr Jens Kröger Former Curator, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin; specialist in Islamic glass
Dr Linda York Leach † Specialist in Indian painting; author of a major catalogue of the Indian paintings in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Mary McWilliams Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums; specialist in Safavid textiles
Francis Maddison † Former Curator, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford; specialist in scientific instruments and their makers
Roberta Marin Assistant Curator, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
Marielle Martiniani-Reber Chief Curator, Applied Arts Department, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva; special interest in textiles of the Arab world
Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam Curator and research assistant at the Victoria and Albert Museum; specialist in calligraphy and painting from Iran and South Asia up to the 19th century
Dr Peter Morgan Former Director, British Institute of Persian Studies, Iran; research interests include Ilkhanid ceramics and tilework
Dr Pedro Moura Carvalho Deputy Director, Art and Programs, The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; specialist in Mughal art and European contributions to the arts of India, Iran.
Nahla Nassar Curator and Registrar, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; special interest in Islamic pilgrimage related textiles
Professor Alastair Northedge Professor of Islamic art and architecture, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris; archaeologist specialising in early Islamic material culture
Dr Jack Ogden Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; former Chief Executive, Gemmological Association of Great Britain; specialist in the historical development of jewellery materials and techniques
Dr Alison Ohta Director, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; specialist in the technique and ornament of Mamluk bookbinding
Dr Rachel Parikh Currently the Calderwood Curatorial Fellow of South Asian Art at Harvard Art Museums; specialist in South Asian and Islamic works on paper as well as arms and armour
Ralph Pinder-Wilson † Former Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, London; specialist in the arts of Iran, India and Afghanistan
B.W. Robinson † Former Fellow of the British Academy; former Keeper of Metalwork, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; specialist in Islamic painting and the arts of Qajar Iran
Professor J.M. Rogers Fellow of the British Academy; Honorary Curator, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; Former Deputy Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, London; inaugural Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in many aspects of Islamic culture and history, especially Seljuk and Ottoman arts
Dr Martina Rugiadi Assistant Curator, Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; specialist in Ghaznavid stonework
Dr Nabil F. Safwat Former Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in Islamic calligraphy and the arts of the book
Professor Emilie Savage-Smith Fellow of the British Academy; Professor of the History of Islamic Science, Oxford University; specialist in Islamic science, medicine and magic
Dr Emily Shovelton Independent researcher and lecturer, currently tutor for the Islamic Art module at the Victoria and Albert Museum; specialist in illustrated Persian and Indo- Persian manuscripts
Dr Eleanor Sims Editor, Islamic Art for the East-West Foundation, New York (originally Co-editor with her late husband, Professor Ernst J. Grube); special expertise is eastern Islamic painting
Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams Fellow of the British Academy; Research Professor of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in Middle Iranian languages of Eastern Iran and Central Asia, including Sogdian and Bactrian
Robert Skelton Former Keeper of the Indian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; specialist in the arts of India
Milton Sonday Former Curator of Textiles, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York; specialist in the structures and continuous patterns of textiles of all cultures
Professor Svat Soucek Professor Emeritus of History, Princeton University, New Jersey; specialist in historical cartography
Michael Spink Independent researcher, lecturer and writer on Islamic and Indian art; Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain
Tim Stanley Senior Curator, Middle Eastern collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; specialist in Islamic manuscript production, calligraphy and the decorative arts and has a longstanding interest in Ottoman culture
Professor Wheeler M. Thackston Professor Emeritus of the Practice in Persian and Other Near Eastern Languages, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dr Cristina Tonghini Lecturer in the History of Islamic Art, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Venice; archaeologist in Syria and specialist in its Islamic ceramics
Dr Elena Tsareva Leading researcher, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg; specialist in textiles and costume of northern Eurasia
Dr Aram R. Vardanyan Curator of Islamic coins in the History Museum of Armenia as well as a senior scientific researcher in the Institute of Oriental Studies NAS in Yerevan; specialist in Islamic coinage and history
Dr Stephen Vernoit Former Assistant Professor, Al-Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco; former Lecturer, Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University; specialist in the art and cultural history of the Islamic world in the 17th–20th centuries
Marie-France Vivier Head of the Magreb section, Musée du quai Branly, Paris; specialist in North African textiles
Dr Marian Wenzel † Islamic art historian with a special interest in Islamic Jewellery
Dr Elaine Wright Curator of the Islamic Collections, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; specialist in Islamic manuscript Production
Mohamed Zakariya Distinguished contemporary calligrapher, now working in Washington, D.C.
Dror Elkvity Curator and Registrar
Dr Oliver Impey and
Malcolm Fairley
Dr Oliver Impey † Senior Curator, Ashmolean Museum; Reader in Japanese Art, University of Oxford
Malcolm Fairley Formerly of Sotheby’s and Barry Davies Oriental Art; now co-owner of the Asian Art Gallery, London
Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili
Hida Toyojiro
Sato Doshin
Major Andrew Keelan
Dror Elkvity
Dr Barbara Ford Associate Curator of the Department of Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
B.W. Robinson † Former Keeper of Metalwork, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Lawrence Smith Former Keeper of the Department of Japanese Antiquities, British Museum, London
Dr Gunhild Avitable Director of the Japan Society Gallery, New York; former Curator of Far Eastern Art, Museum of Applied Art in Frankfurt-am-Main
Ellen P. Conant Independent art historian, New York
Joe Earle Senior Consultant for Japanese Works of Art, Bonhams, London; former Director of the Japan Society Gallery, New York and Chair of the Department of the Art of Asia, Oceania and Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Dror Elkvity Curator of the Enamel, Spanish, Swedish and Aramaic Collections
Dr Rupert Faulkner Senior Curator, Japan, Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Goke Tadaomi Former Professor, Faculty of Domestic Sciences, Kyoritsu Women’s University
Victor Harris Former Keeper of the Department of Japanese antiquities at the British Museum, London
Hida Toyojiro President, Akita University of Arts; Curator, Crafts Gallery, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Jack Hillier † Renowned art historian and author of many publications on Japanese art
Dr Janet Hunter Saji Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics
Julia Hutt Curator, Japan, Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Gregory Irvine
Honorary Curator, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow (Japan) in the Research Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Anna Jackson Keeper of the Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Major Andrew Keelan Former Chief Coordinator of the Khalili Collection
Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili Honorary Fellow of the University of London; Visiting Professor, Department of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Clare Pollard Curator of Japanese Art, Department of Eastern Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; former art historian and Curator of the East Asian collections at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Sato Doshin Former Professor of Japanese art history, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
Vibeke Woldbye Former Curator, Danish Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen
Edward Wrangham † Author and collector of Japanese lacquer specialising in Inro
Yamazaki Tsuyoshi Professor of History and Craft, Kanazawa University of Arts; former Curator at the Fine Arts Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan; former Curator, Osaka City Museum
Nahla Nassar Curator and Registrar
Qaisra M. Khan Curator
Dr Julian Raby
Dr Bilal Badat
Dr Sami De Giosa
Ms Shireen el Kassem
Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili
Mr Seif El Rashidi
Dr Sabiha Gologlu
Professor Alastair Hamilton
Dr Edmund Hayes
Ms Qaisra M. Khan
Dr Jan Loop
Dr Michael Christopher Low
Dr Sergio Carro Martín
Professor Ulrich Marzolph
Professsor Richard McGregor
Dr Luitgard Mols
Dr Harry Munt
Ms Nahla Nassar
Mr James Nicholson
Mr Seif el Rashidi
Mr Yousuf Saeed
Mr Saarthak Singh
Dr John Slight
Dr Mehmet Tütüncü
Dr Aram Vardanyan
Dr Arnoud Vrolijk
Dr Muhammad Isa Waley
Dr Peter Webb
Mr Michael Wolfe
Dror Elkvity Curator and Registrar
Joseph Naveh † Former Professor Emiritus of West Semitic epigraphy and palaeography, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Shaul Shaked Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies and Comparative Religion, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Dror Elkvity Curator and Registrar
Professor Kendall Brown Professor of Asian Art, California State University, Long Beach
Dr Chrstine Guth Asian Specialism Tutor, Royal College of Art, London
Professor Iwao Nagasaki Kyoritsu Women’s University, Tokyo
Anna Jackson Keeper of the Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Professor Timon Screech Professor of the History of Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Dror Elkvity Curator and Registrar
Viveka Hansen Stiftelsen Institutet for Kulturforskning, IK Foundation
Dror Elkvity Curator and Registrar
Dr James D. Lavin † Former Professor of Spanish, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Ramiro Larrañaga † Former master engraver and damascener; Basque historian and author
Claude Blair † Leading authority on European armour
Dror Elkvity Curator and Registrar
Julia Clarke Deputy Director and Senior Specialist, Objects of Vertu, Sotheby’
Tatiana Fabergé Member of the Fabergé Heritage Council, and greatgranddaughter of Peter Carl Fabergé
Malcolm Fairley Formerly of Sotheby’s and Barry Davies Oriental Art; now co-owner of the Asian Art Gallery, London
Dr Oliver Impey † Senior Curator, Ashmolean Museum; Reader in Japanese Art, University of Oxford
Rose Kerr Former Keeper of the Far Eastern Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Daniela Mascetti Senior Director, International Senior Specialist, Jewellery, Sotheby’s
Dr Pedro Moura Carvalho Deputy Director, Art and Programs, The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco;
specialist in Mughal art and European contributions to the arts of India, Iran, Japan and China post 1500
Dr Jack Ogden Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; former Chief Executive, Gemmological Association of Great Britain; specialist in the historical development of jewellery materials and techniques
Professor J.M. Rogers Fellow of the British Academy; Honorary Curator, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; Former Deputy Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, London; inaugural
Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in many aspects of Islamic culture and history, especially Seljuk and Ot toman arts
Haydn Williams Former Head of Portrait Miniatures, Objects of Vertu and Russian works of art, Sotheby’s
Pouya Hosseinpour is the Chief Technology Officer at The Khalili Collections, Khalili Foundation, and The Khalili Publications, as well as serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Nocturnal Cloud. With a wealth of experience in all things digital, from marketing to spatial video, AI app development, and the latest in technologies, Pouya has distinguished himself as a technical specialist. His reputation surged as he swiftly provided innovative solutions to clients worldwide.
Recognising prevalent gaps in technological integration within various sectors, Pouya resolved to bridge these divides. Seamlessly merging technology with creative strategy, he has become an instrumental figure within the digital landscape. As the Chief Technology Officer of the Khalili Collections, Pouya leads a team of skilled technical professionals, spearheading a journey of digital innovation and transformation.
Pouya has overseen the development and implementation of cutting-edge technological solutions across a diverse range of projects, including the Khalili Collections Virtual Galleries, Interactive 3D Exhibition Maps, The Commonwealth Faith Festival, The World Festival of Cultural Diversity, Interfaith Explorers, and The Maimonides Foundation. Under his leadership, the Khalili Collections has consistently delivered impactful digital initiatives, propelling the Collections to the forefront of technological advancement.
With his visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to innovation, Pouya envisions a future where technology plays an integral role in addressing societal challenges and driving positive change. As the Chief Technology Officer, he remains dedicated to harnessing the latest technological breakthroughs to empower the Khalili Collections’ mission and propel it towards even greater success.