Meet the Author
Julian Raby
Julian Raby, born in London in 1949, studied as an undergraduate and postgraduate at the University of Oxford. He taught Islamic art and architecture at Oxford from 1979 for over 20 years before moving to become the Director of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery—now the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art—from 2002 to 2017. A distinguished scholar, Raby’s works include Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey (1989) and Qajar Portraits (1999), alongside groundbreaking research on cross-cultural themes such as the Pisa Grifn and Mehmed the Conqueror’s library. During his time at the Smithsonian Institution he directed over 30 major international exhibitions. Founder of Azimuth Editions and Oxford Studies in Islamic Art, Raby has received honors from Portugal, Türkiye, and Japan for his contributions to art history.
