Sabiha Al Khemir

Sabiha Al Khemir or Sabiha Khemir (born 1959) is a Tunisian writer, illustrator, and expert in Islamic art, whose work is concerned with cultural bridging and cultural dialogues. She was the founding director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. She was born in Tunisia and grew up in Korba, Tunisia, where she attended Koranic school as a child. She is fluent in and lectures internationally in English, Arabic and French in addition to speaking Italian and Spanish. Her multifaceted approach has been widely recognized. She is known for using themes relating to the metropolitan location and identity in her literature and art.

Al Khemir graduated in 1982 from the University of Tunis, École Normale Supérieure, with a degree in English Literature. In 1986 she received an MA (with distinction) in Islamic Art and Archaeology from London University, School of Oriental and African Studies, and in 1990, a Ph.D. from London University, School of Oriental and African Studies. In 1990 she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States.

Some of her first scholarly activities were evident in her Ph.D. dissertation, "The Palace of Sitt al-Mulk and Fatimid Imagery," London University, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK, 1990.

Between 1991-1992, Al Khemir was a consultant for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York for the exhibition "Al-Andalus: Islamic Arts of Spain." She traveled in Europe and North Africa in search of objects and history that would provide the basis for the show. "…She wrote a close study of ten examples of Quranic manuscripts to show how different styles of calligraphy developed in the Islamic world…The year of the Al-Andalus show was significant: 1992 was the five-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's famous voyage in 1492, which was also the year when Islamic rule came to an end on the Iberian peninsula." This experience inspired one of her later essays, "The Absent Mirror," first published in "Meetings with Remarkable Muslims," Eland Books, UK, 2005.

...
Wikipedia