Black and white photograph of a stone screen

Category Archives: All AKDC News

Caroline Williams, authority on the Islamic architecture of Cairo has passed

AKDC at MIT is saddened to convey the news that Caroline Williams, a well-known authority on the Islamic architecture of Cairo, passed away last week. Among her publications was The Islamic Monuments of Cairo: The Practical Guide. Currently in its 7th edition, the text is a classic educational guide to the history of Islamic architecture in the city. Caroline and her husband John Alden Williams (d. 2022), himself a distinguished scholar of Islamic history, took thousands of photos in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East as part of their research on art and architecture. A sample of their […]

His Highness Aga Khan IV, Founder of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard, has died

His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), passed away peacefully in Lisbon on 4 February 2025, aged 88, surrounded by his family. Prince Karim Aga Khan was the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, including the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and its signature programs, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme. His Highness founded the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture (AKPIA) at MIT and Harvard through an endowment in […]

Data and images documenting 20 historically significant Islamic monuments now available on Archnet

The Aga Khan Documentation Center is thrilled to announce our collaboration with the Research and Information Center for Asian Studies (RICAS) at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (University of Tokyo) and Five Cross Architects (Mumbai, India) (FCA) to safeguard an endangered archival collection documenting 750 Indian Islamic monuments from the Delhi Sultanate era (1191–1526 CE). This treasure trove of 40,000+ photographs, drawings, field notes, and inscriptions has been digitized, preserved, and is now being made available to both scholars and the general public on Archnet.org. Data on and images of 20 monuments was published this morning. Additional monuments […]

Books and Bites on Wednesday, November 20

Join us in the Department of Distinctive Collections Reading Room (14N-118) to engage with recent acquisitions and highlights from Distinctive Collections and Rotch Library, including artist books, rare books, and materials from the Aga Khan Documentation Center. Enjoy refreshments while you explore!

New for the Fall Semester

As we start the 2024-2025 academic year, we bring you nearly 5,000 records added since the end of the last academic year: 30 new sites, 21 publications, 73 authority records, and 4,842 media records. The collage to the left includes 7 of the new site records. How many can you identify? For answers, see the following links corresponding to the images, clockwise from the top left: www.archnet.org/sites/21840 www.archnet.org/sites/21841 www.archnet.org/sites/21825 www.archnet.org/sites/21816 www.archnet.org/sites/21815 www.archnet.org/sites/21835

NOTICE: Archnet will be unavailable for several hours on July 10th

Archnet.org will be unavailable starting at 9 am EDT/ 1 pm UTC on July 10 while we migrate over 140,000 media (images, documents, and videos) to an IIIF-capable server so that we can continue making Archnet media available to you via state-of-the-art technology. The process is likely to last 6-8 hours, though it is not possible to start precisely. IIIF stands for “International Image Interoperability Framework,” a standard for hosting, serving, describing, sharing, and viewing images of other visual media that has been widely adopted by libraries, archives, galleries, and museums to further facilitate the sharing of their collections. This […]

Digital Interfaces Workshops on Documenting West African Heritage Held at MIT

The A3-Archnet Digital Interfaces Workshop week, hosted by the Aga Khan Documentation Center @ MIT, was held on 27 February – 3 March 2023 in the MIT Libraries. The Nigerian delegation was led by A3 founder Baba Oladeji and consisted of three winners of the A3-Archnet Writing Competition, Adefola Toye, Muhammed Madandola, Abdullah Ogunsetan. The Nigerian delegation received an orientation tour from Matt Saba, Interim Program Head and Michael Toler, Archnet Content Manager in the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT), on Sunday, 26th February 2023. A fourth prize winner, Enwonwu Chiagozie Mitchelle, was unable to participate in […]

Documenting Heritage Destruction from the Turkey-Syria Earthquake

العربية Türkçe Even as it continues to rise, the number of fatalities from the horrible earthquake that shook large parts of Turkey and Syria defies comprehension, and the number of those injured and left homeless is many times that number. Many children have lost their families and will need to be provided for. Heartbreaking seems too mild a word! Addressing this urgent humanitarian need is the first priority, and we urge you to support relief efforts however you can. There is a list of international aid agencies on this page from the Aga Khan Development Network. Humanitarian aid is and […]

Digital Documentation of African Cultural Heritage, Friday, March 3

As Black History Month draws to a close, the A3-Archnet collaboration to document African architecture is starting a week of workshops at MIT that will conclude on Friday with a public presentation on Friday, March 3, at 3 pm in The Nexus of Hayden Library. It will also be streamed live on Zoom. The in-person event is free and open to the public. Registration is required for the webinar. The participants in the workshops-Muhammed Madandola, recipient of a degree in architecture from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria and a Master’s in Islamic art, architecture, and urbanism from […]

New Issue of OA Journal DISEGNARECON

Beniamino Polimeni, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Hertfordshire and Michael A. Toler, ARCHNET Content Manager in the Aga Khan Documentation Center, have edited a new issue of DISEGNARECON, an Open Access Journal on Architecture and Cultural Heritage published by the University of L’Aquila in Italy. The issue, Vol. 15, No. 28, also available on Archnet, includes 7 articles on the theme of “Cities and Migration: Visual approaches to the challenges of increasingly diverse cities,” including two contributions by Polimeni and Toler, the introductory editorial and “On the Move: Michel Écochard, Migration, and Transdisciplinary Exchange in Urban Design.” […]