Islamic Art and Architecture MPhil

About

The MPhil in Islamic Art and Architecture is suitable either as a stand-alone course or as a stepping stone to doctoral research. 

You will have a supervisor at the Khalili Research Centre, who will guide your progress through the course and who will agree with you a programme of work and a timetable for each term of the course, including: general skills and research specific training, formal teaching and instruction, attendance at lectures and seminars, and regular meetings (normally at least twice per term) with the supervisor for detailed discussion on your progress. You will be expected to attend tutorials, classes, lectures and seminars regularly, and your tutors and language instructors will give you regular assignments of written work.

In the first year, you will take a broad survey course over three terms entitled History of Islamic Art and Architecture. During the second year, you will attend eight practical classes (known as the ‘Portfolio’). Using the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, Bodleian Library, and other Oxford resources, this course introduces techniques to describe and analyse buildings and objects in a range of media (such as manuscripts, ceramics, metalwork, and coinage). You will also build up your independent research and critical skills by writing a dissertation while continuing to receive intensive language training.

Many graduates have pursued doctoral study in Oxford and elsewhere, and/or successful careers at universities, museums, and in business-related fields worldwide. Examples of alumni’s current positions can be found on the Khalili Research Centre’s website.

Assessment

At the end of the first year of the course you must sit the qualifying examination, consisting of a language examination in Arabic or Persian or Turkish, which will test progress in the elementary study of the relevant language made during the year.

In the second year, the final examination is taken, which consists of five elements:

  • An examination on the History of Islamic Art and Architecture
  • A language examination, in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or another relevant language
  • An option paper to be selected in consultation with your supervisor (either take-home research paper or written examination)
  • The Portfolio of Practical Work
  • The thesis.

You will be expected to spend part of the vacation between years one and two engaged in language study and/or fieldwork in a region appropriate to your area of interest.

Teaching staff
Resources for study

Khalili Research Centre

Islamic Art & Architecture is based at the Khalili Research Centre (KRC), where you will have most of your classes, lectures and tutorials. The KRC is the University of Oxford's centre for research and teaching in the art and material culture of the Islamic societies of the Middle East and of their non-Muslim members and neighbours. The KRC houses some members of faculty staff, and you will be given your own workspace. The centre has a lecture room with audio- visual and IT equipment; an image digitisation room (available by appointment only); common room, kitchen facilities and a computing officer, as well as a wide range of IT facilities which can be used by staff and students, including network laser printing, audio visual equipment, and scanning equipment. You will also have access to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies common room and computing rooms.

Libraries and museums

The KRC adjoins the world-class specialised collections of the Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library and the Nizami Ganjavi Library for the history and literatures of the Islamic world. Some colleges (such as Wolfson College) have additional lending collections of books on Islamic Art and Architecture. The Ashmolean Museum and Weston Library, with their superb collections of Islamic art and manuscripts, are a few steps away.

Faculty resources

Students have access to the University's centrally provided electronic resources, the Faculty's IT Officer, and other bibliographic, archive or material sources as appropriate to the topic. There is a computing room for the use of graduate students in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as a common room where tea and coffee are available and staff and students can meet.

Oxford colleges

Oxford’s colleges provide support, facilities and membership of a friendly and stimulating academic community. All colleges provide library and IT facilities, welfare support, and sports and social events. Although your academic studies will be directed by the faculty, colleges can be a valuable source of support. Please check the application guide for information about colleges.

How to apply

Improving access to graduate study

The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies is taking part in initiatives to improve the selection procedure for graduate applications, to ensure that all candidates are evaluated fairly.

Socio-economic data (where it has been provided in the application form) will be used as part of an initiative to contextualise applications at the different stages of the selection process. 

FAQs

Can I submit one 4,000 word piece of written work instead of two 2,000 word pieces?

Not for our courses. We ask for two pieces which will show a range of ability rather than two highly similar pieces and you may find it useful to check the criteria your written work will be assessed for when choosing your samples. Your samples can be extracts from longer pieces of work and if this is the case, please indicate this on a cover page, or at the beginning of each piece of work.

Where can I find out about funding available for applicants?

Your best guide to funding opportunities will always be the University's admissions webpages. We recommend that you use the Fees, funding and scholarship search which is a useful tool for finding any funding that you may be eligible to apply for.

If you submit your application by the January deadline you will automatically be considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships. There’s no separate scholarship application process or extra supporting documentation required for funding. Based on the information supplied in your graduate application, you will be automatically considered for scholarships where you meet the eligibility criteria with most scholarships using academic merit and/or potential as the basis on which award decisions are made.

However, please note, in addition to submitting an application form for your chosen course, the scholarships listed on the following page also require an additional application to be considered for them.