The international seminar on Mughal art and architecture concludes

ALIGARH: The three-day international seminar on ‘Mughal Empire: Art, Architecture and Historiography’, organised by the Department of History, Centre of Advanced Study, Aligarh Muslim University in hybrid mode concluded with a number of lecture sessions held over the last three days to discuss a wide range of topics related to Mughal art and architecture. Learned scholars from across the world, including from countries like France, Italy, Vienna and Japan presented lectures on a myriad topics.

The deliberations on the first day ran over two technical sessions with three lectures each chaired by Prof Sheerin Moosvi and Prof Amit Dey (University of Kolkata).

During the first session, Professor Amit Dey spoke on “The Nature of the Mughal Empire: A Brief Historiographical Survey”, exploring the cosmopolitan culture, concepts, language
and mysticism with the purpose of re-locating the Mughal Empire in the continuous quest for
subcontinental identity.

Dr. Stefania Cavaliere, University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy) presented a lecture online on “Hindu intellectuals at the Mughal court: Kavīndrācārya Sarasvatī and the making of Indo-Islamicate cultural models”. Dr. Rachel Hirsch spoke on “Uncovering Mughal Gardens: The Case Study of ‘Abd al-Rahim’s Lal Bagh”.

Prof Abdur Raheem Kidwai, Frantisek Peterk and Mohd. Suwaid (AMU) presented a talk on “Conservation of Marble Built Heritage of Mughal Period at Agra Circle’. Prof Yaqub Ali Khan delivered a lecture on “Mughal Architecture in Rajasthan: An Epigraphical based regional Study”. Dr. Ataullah, Delhi University made a presentation on ‘Sufism: Faith and Practice’.

The second day of the seminar began with the inauguration of an exhibition of Medieval paintings, coins and farmans, which was inaugurated by Prof. Mirza Asmer Beg (Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences).

Later, Prof Saifuddin Ahmad spoke on “Cultivating an Innovative Style: Khan-I Arzu and the Development of Linguistics and Philology in the Late Mughal Period”. Prof. Ahmad’s paper dwelled on the question of the reaction to the rise of Sabaq-i-Hindi as a form of Persian.

Dr. M. Ifzalur-Rahman Khan delivered a lecture on “Later Mughal Monuments in Shahjahanpur”, while another presentation was made by Dr. Pratyay Nath on “Narratives of War and the Making of Mughal Kingship under Akbar”.

Prof.Gulfishan Khan, Prof. Ali Athar, Dr. Aneesa Iqbal, Dr. Ali Kazim and others moderated a lively question-answer session.

During the fifth session, chaired by Dr. Jabir Raza, Dr. Stephen Popp from Vienna presented a talk on “The Dismissal of Qazvini: Why did Shahjahan dislike the style of his chronicle”.

Dr. Tahir Hussain spoke on “An Insight of Bihar in the Light of Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari”, while Dr.Vikas Rathee expressed his views on “Bakhtawar Khan and the Writing of History During Aurangzeb’s Reign”.

Later, a documentary, “Impeccable Heart” was shown by Dr. Tara Sheemar and Dr. Khurshid Alam, JDMC, University of Delhi.

The sixth technical session, chaired by Prof. MK Pundhir featured a paper presented by Dr. Ninomiya Ayoko from Japan on “Translating Ain-i Akbari by Abul Fazl”.

Prof. Raziuddin Aquil from DU spoke on ‘Literature and history: Women’s poetry in Late Mughal India’, while Dr. Sadaf Faridi and Abdullah Adil Khan (Department of Architecture, AMU) spoke on “Relevance of Mughal gardens in today’s era: A study of leisure and tomb gardens”.

Prof. Mohammad Parwez chaired the seventh technical session, while the last technical session, featuring papers by research scholars, was presided over by Prof. Sumbul Halim Khan.

In the valedictory session, a report of the three day seminar was presented by Dr. Lubna Irfan and feedback was invited from the faculty members and participants. Some important remarks were made by the guest speakers, Dr. Pratyay Nathwho and Prof Amit Dey addressed the valedictory programme and appreciated the efforts put in by the management to make the seminar a grand success.

Chairperson, Prof. Gulfishan Khan shared her experiences during the seminar and thanked the participants and the people involved in organizing the seminar for their commitment.

A visit to the Musa Dakri Museum was also conducted for the participants under the leadership of Prof Ali Athar, the founder of the Museum.