Mehmet Aga-Oglu (24 August 1896 – 4 July 1949), was an Azerbaijani-Turkish Islamic art historian. Born in

Erivan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

, Russian Caucasia (today

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

), Mehmet earned a doctorate history, philosophy, and Islamic languages from the

University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

.Mehmet Aga-Oglu Papers. ''Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives''. (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.) Gift of Dr. Kamer Aga-Oglu, 1959. By 1921 he was at the

University of Istanbul Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, it was reformed as the fi ...

, where he studied

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

and

Ottoman history The Ottoman Empire was founded c. 1299 by Turkoman chieftain Osman I as a small beylik in northwestern Anatolia just south of the Byzantine capital Constantinople. In 1326, the Ottoman Turks captured nearby Bursa, cutting off Asia Minor from Byz ...

. Whilst in Berlin, Aga-Oglu would study under Dr. Ernst Herzfeld in Near Eastern architecture. In 1926 he earned a Ph.D. and in 1927 the Islamic Department of the National Museum in Istanbul appointed Mehmet as curator. In 1929, Mehmet was appointed by Wilhelm Valentiner to develop the Department of Near Eastern Art at the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

, and published his first of several articles in the DIA ''Bulletin.'' 1933, he was made chair of the History of Islamic Art at

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, and was the first professor of Islamic art in the United States. Aga-Oglu was the first editor of the scholarly journal ''Ars Islamica'', beginning in 1934. He would teach at the University of Michigan until 1938 as a Freer Fellow and Lecturer. Mehmet Aga-Oglu died in 1949.

Publications

*Persian Bookbindings of the Fifteenth Century, Mehmet Aga-Oglu, University of Michigan Press. *Dictionary of Islamic Artists, ed. Ernst Kuhnel, Gaston Wiet, and Mehmet Aga-Oglu."Material for a Dictionary of Islamic Artists", ''Ars Islamica 3'', no. 1 (1936): 123. *“Six Thousand Years of Persian Art”, The Art News, XXXVIII/30 (April 27, 1940), 7–19. * JSTOR

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aga-Oglu, Mehmet Turkish academics Turkish art historians 1896 births 1949 deaths University of Michigan faculty Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Turkish emigrants to the United States People from Yerevan

Publications

See also

References