Afif Bahnassi

Afif Bahnassi was a Syrian Islamic art historian and museum curator, who served as the General Director of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus, Syria. He was born in Damascus in 1928 and graduated from the University of Damascus with a degree in Arabic literature. He then pursued his studies in France, where he obtained a doctorate in Islamic art history from the Sorbonne University in 1965. He returned to Syria and joined the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, where he held various positions, including the director of the National Museum of Damascus and the director of the Museum of Islamic Art. He also participated in several archaeological missions and excavations in Syria and abroad. He was a member of the governing board of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) based in Istanbul, Turkey. He authored several books and articles on Islamic art and Syrian antiquities, such as The Ancient Syria and His Art (1987) and The Art of Islam, with Nurhan Atasoy, published by UNESCO in 1992. He was considered one of the leading experts on Islamic art and culture in the world. He died of a heart attack in Istanbul on November 2, 2017, at the age of 89.