The Trust is hosting this coming Friday’s lecture (10th December), by Professor Frantz Grenet (Paris – excavator of Afrasiab) at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
The event starts at 5pm. There will be a reception to follow.
The talk is entitled:
The rediscovery of the court culture of the Qarakhanids (11th-early 13th centuries): recent results of the French-Uzbek Archaeological Mission at Afrasiab (Samarkand)
The Qarakhanids, the first Muslim Turkish dynasty, who ruled Transoxiana or part of it from 999 to 1212 AD, have not, until now, enjoyed a great reputation as patrons of the arts. This picture is now changing dramatically, mainly because of the recent discovery by the French-Uzbek Archaeological Mission at Samarkand of a cycle of mural paintings in a royal pavilion dating from the end of that period.
