Nur Efeoglu

Department: Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
Discipline: Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
Research Centre/Unit: Centre for Islamic Archaeology

Project Summary

Thesis Title: 
The Representation of the Seljuk and Ottoman Past in British Museums: A Comparative Critical Evaluation of the Collections in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and National Museums Scotland

The key research question of the research is: how are the Seljuks and Ottomans represented through the collections in the three museums that are being analysed. This will allow an evaluation of how this has changed over time and what is meant by the terms “Ottoman” and “Seljuk” as well as terms such as "Turkish-Islamic Art", "Turkish Art", "Turkish Islamic" based on these museum collections and how they have been curated and interpreted. 
The aim of the research is to examine the three British museum collections from the perspective of Islamic art museum studies in order to contribute to the establishment of the many museums being built on the subject and to serve as a source for Islamic art museology research.
As a result, the main overarching goal of the research is to try to demonstrate the representation of the Seljuk and Ottoman past in British museums through an interdisciplinary study focusing on the three chosen museums.

Supervisory Team

Prof. Timothy Insoll (Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology)

Dr Clemence Scalbert-Yucel (Senior Lecturer in Ethnopolitics)

Wider Research Interests

Islamic Art, Seljuk, and Ottoman art, Islamic Archaeology, Museology, Heritage Studies