Multimediality in Medieval Iranian Architecture: Stuccos, Wall Paintings and Tiles

The Sheikh Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations and the American Research Center in Egypt co-host a public lecture by Ana Marija Grbanovic , postdoctoral research associate at the Centre for Heritage Conservation Studies and Technologies at the University of Bamberg. The Mongol conquest of Eurasia has long been characterized as the "Mongol Catastrophe" — a narrative holding that it triggered lasting decline across the region's social and economic life. Within this framework, the 1221 Mongol invasion of Persia is typically credited with halting the growth of architectural patronage and stalling innovation under the Ilkhanids. More recent revisionist scholarship complicates this view, pointing instead to the Pax Mongolica as a stabilizing force that secured the Silk Route and enabled continued exchange. This lecture reexamines that transformation through medieval Persianate architectural decoration — stuccos, tiles, and wall paintings, along with their derivatives and combinations. Drawing on recent in-situ documentation of architectural structures and their decoration, with particular attention to materiality, production technologies, and aesthetics, Grbanovic identifies specific architectural innovations that support new theoretical interpretations of the period. Her findings suggest that, rather than a standstill, the Ilkhanid period saw a marked proliferation in monument patronage — shaped directly by the Mongol conquest and the conditions of the Pax Mongolica. The lecture further traces how innovations in multimedia architectural decoration reshaped not only these monuments but subsequent architectural developments well beyond the region, extending to Central Asia, Anatolia, and Egypt. Photograph credit to @Elisabeth Miedl of the University of Bamberg