IFAO

In the framework of the international conference "From the ground up: The politics of burial and memory in the early Islamic world", organized jointely by the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (Ifao), the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, and Leiden University, Abbes Zouache, Ahmed al-Shoky, and Anna Lagaron will present a Keynote lecture on the 7 April 2026 at 6 P.M. at the Ifao.

 Abstract: 

The scientific project "Cairo Islamic Tombstones" led by the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo (Ifao), in partnership with the Department of Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish Antiquities and the Faculty of Archaeology at the Ayn Shams University, is part of ongoing research at the Ifao on the necropolises of Cairo. This project involves fieldwork in Cairo's necropolis and the study of more than 4,500 stelae previously preserved in the citadel's cellars and moved to the mausoleum of Emir Qurqumas. The project emphasizes student training, restoration, conservation, and study of the stelae, as well as the creation of databases and publications of volumes at the Ifao.

This joint presentation by the project leaders and members, given as part of the conference ‘From the Ground Up: The politics of burial and memory in the early Islamic world’, will begin with an overview of the initial field missions carried out since 2023, then focus on the site of Qurqumas, where the oldest stelae date back to the early Islamic period. A large number of these stelae have already been published in the volumes of the Catalogue General du Musée Arabe (1932-1942), but only in chronological order and often without geographical or funerary context. One of the main contributions of this project is therefore the localization of the stelae, which paves the way for targeted corpus studies and enables a shift from macro-history to micro-history. In the context of this conference, we will also develop an approach aimed at the material recontextualization of the object, encouraging us to conceptualize our study not from "the ground up", but from "up to the ground".

Speakers:

Abbes Zouache, Director of Studies at the Ifao,  Abbes Zouache, is a historian and Arabist specialising in warfare in the medieval East, which he views as a social and cultural phenomenon.

Ahmed al-Shoky, Associate Professor in the Department of Archeology, Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, former Director General of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo between 2014 and 2017. He is currently the head of the French-Egyptian mission for the site of Qal’at Sheikh al-ʿArab Hammām in Qena.

Anna Lagaron, Arabist and epigraphist, scientific member of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (Ifao).