Michelle Al-Ferzly is a doctoral candidate in Islamic art history working under the direction of Professor Christiane Gruber. Her dissertation examines medieval Islamic tableware and dining culture between the 9th and 15th centuries. In 2018, she worked as a curatorial assistant for the Aga Khan Museum's exhibition The Moon: A Voyage Through Time.br /> Christiane Gruber is Professor of Islamic Art in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her fields of interest include Islamic ascension texts and images, depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, books arts, codicology, paleography, architecture, and visual and material culture from the medieval period to today. Her most recent publications include The Praiseworthy One: The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Texts and Images and an edited volume The Image Debate: Figural Representation in Islam and Across the World, both published in 2019.

Undoubtedly, Gruber and Al-Ferzly have put together a book that intriguingly unravels the mood and times of the Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi excavations. The intentions, achievements, obstacles, and unexpected outcomes of the project are laid out in full clarity, while a valuable and empathic insight is given into the people of the Syrian countryside and their ways, now tragically decimated.Walmsley, Alan, Bulletin of Oriental and African Studies 15 September 2023

Michelle Al-Ferzly is a doctoral candidate in Islamic art history working under the direction of Professor Christiane Gruber. Her dissertation examines medieval Islamic tableware and dining culture between the 9th and 15th centuries. In 2018, she worked as a curatorial assistant for the Aga Khan Museum's exhibition The Moon: A Voyage Through Time.br /> Christiane Gruber is Professor of Islamic Art in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her fields of interest include Islamic ascension texts and images, depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, books arts, codicology, paleography, architecture, and visual and material culture from the medieval period to today. Her most recent publications include The Praiseworthy One: The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Texts and Images and an edited volume The Image Debate: Figural Representation in Islam and Across the World, both published in 2019.

Undoubtedly, Gruber and Al-Ferzly have put together a book that intriguingly unravels the mood and times of the Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi excavations. The intentions, achievements, obstacles, and unexpected outcomes of the project are laid out in full clarity, while a valuable and empathic insight is given into the people of the Syrian countryside and their ways, now tragically decimated.Walmsley, Alan, Bulletin of Oriental and African Studies 15 September 2023

Michelle Al-Ferzly is a doctoral candidate in Islamic art history working under the direction of Professor Christiane Gruber. Her dissertation examines medieval Islamic tableware and dining culture between the 9th and 15th centuries. In 2018, she worked as a curatorial assistant for the Aga Khan Museum's exhibition The Moon: A Voyage Through Time.br /> Christiane Gruber is Professor of Islamic Art in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her fields of interest include Islamic ascension texts and images, depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, books arts, codicology, paleography, architecture, and visual and material culture from the medieval period to today. Her most recent publications include The Praiseworthy One: The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Texts and Images and an edited volume The Image Debate: Figural Representation in Islam and Across the World, both published in 2019.

Undoubtedly, Gruber and Al-Ferzly have put together a book that intriguingly unravels the mood and times of the Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi excavations. The intentions, achievements, obstacles, and unexpected outcomes of the project are laid out in full clarity, while a valuable and empathic insight is given into the people of the Syrian countryside and their ways, now tragically decimated.Walmsley, Alan, Bulletin of Oriental and African Studies 15 September 2023