Mavlyuda Yusupova will be the Central Asia Visiting Professor in November 2018
Mavlyuda Yusupova will be Central Asia Visiting Professor in November 2018. She will deliver two guest lectures for Leiden MA and PhD students.
Professor Mavlyuda Yusupova (PhD) is a chair of the Department of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts, Uzbek Academy of Sciences. She is also a Professor at the Department of Museology at the K. Behzad Institute of Fine Arts and Design in Tashkent. She specializes in architectural history and theory across Central Asia, religious buildings and Islamic shrines, restoration of architectural monuments. Her research interests include medieval Islamic architecture in Central Asia, history and architecture of Sufi khanaqahs, shrines and holy places; colonial architecture and local Jewish architecture. Professor Yusupova will be the Central Asia Visiting Professor in November 2018 and she will deliver two lectures for Leiden MA and PhD students.
Lecture 1 on Monday, 29 October: Bukhara: The Dome of Eastern Islam
The lecture is dedicated to the Islamic architecture of Bukhara covering a thousand-year period of its history between the 9th and 19th century. The city was a major cultural and religious center along the Silk Roads priding itself in many architectural masterpieces. The majority of the monuments and the urban ensembles date back to the two thriving periods of Bukharan history, namely 10th-12thcentury and 15th-17th century. Medieval Bukhara had numerous mosques, bazaars, baths and hauzes (water reservoirs); several of them have been preserved and are operational nowadays.
In the Bukhara oasis, where the Naqshbandi Sufi order was founded and flourished, several monumental khanaqahs and Sufi memorial-cult complexes have been preserved. Distinguished Sufi sheikhs were buried in platform structures under the open sky - dakhma, situated in the burial courtyards - hazirah.
During the 16th-17th centuries, the architectural school of Bukhara played a leading role across Central Asia and has greatly influenced the architecture of other regional schools until the present. In 1993 the historical architectural heritage of 2500 years old Bukhara was put on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Time and Venue
15:15-17:00 hrs
M. de Vrieshof, Room 007
Lecture 2 on Thursday, 1 November: The Architectural Heritage of Uzbekistan as a Symbol of National Identity
This lecture offers a historical overview of the architectural heritage of Uzbekistan used as a symbol of national identity. Numerous restoration campaigns will be discussed by focusing on the role of authorities and political institutions in preserving the monuments. Throughout the discussed periods, the attitude to conservation was mostly appropriate, although it has been motivated by various ideological reasons. Yet all periods had their negative sides, leading to the deliberate destruction of some monuments.
In the Soviet period (1917–1991), a professional school of restoration was established in Uzbekistan. After Independence (1991), the heritage has become a more vivid symbol of the national identity. Greater attention was paid to the preservation and popularization оf the architectural monuments and the development of international tourism. However, during the fast restoration campaigns, poor quality work was permitted in some instances which led to the loss of authentic details.
We truly hope that the positive activities of the new authorities, along with local and foreign specialists being involved, will transform the domain of conservation of Uzbek architectural heritage up to internationals norms and standards in terms of quality and efficiency.
Time and Venue
15:15-17:00 hrs
Van Eyckhof, Room 006