Free
- Lecture
- Online Lecture
Survival Strategies
22 July 2026, 2pm
From War to Wedding
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Luxury Metalworking in the Mongol-Ilkhanate Iran and Iraq.
Speaker: Sussan Babaie, Professor of the Arts of Iran and Islam, The Courtauld, University of London.
Bags, pen boxes, and horse trimmings—all crafted in gold and silver inlay or repoussé. Professor Sussan Babaie explores the intersection of art and politics, shining a light on how these spectacular objects were commissioned as displays of personal prestige and showing command of artistic technologies and precious materials.
16 September 2026, 2pm
Royal Armouries Museum
16+
Free
Objects of prestige
How do did the Mongol conquerors of West Asia once legitimise their rule over Iranian-Islamic territory? What was the role of patronage in this pursuit? In this talk, Professor Sussan Babaie illuminates the extraordinary flourishing of the arts and sciences in the late 13th to 14th centuries of Ilkhanate rule.
From monumental architecture that surpassed in complexity all that was built before to freshly glamoured craft technologies like gold-threaded nasij textiles, glazed ceramics, or metalworking, to unprecedented new genres in luxury manuscript production and scientific discoveries, the patronage of innovative technologies and objects of prestige defined an empire.
Focusing on metalworking techniques and objects, a range that includes the exclusive Courtauld Bag, gold horse trimmings and belt ornaments, we consider how these objects were worn, seen, and offered visual and material cultural cues to the naturalisation of the Mongol warrior elite as new rulers of settled peoples in the Irano-Islamic traditions of West Asia.
The lecture will be delivered in person in the War Cinema at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds and live-streamed.
Image: The Courtauld bag, Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust).
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This is a free lecture.
Please pre-book. You will receive a link to the live online presentation in your booking confirmation.
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