Safa Mahmoudian is an art and architectural historian, with a focus on Western Asia from the early Islamic to early modern periods. She is currently the principal investigator of the “Travelling Gardens” project (2024–2027), funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Before joining the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Dr. Mahmoudian held academic positions at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Oxford, the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Department of Art History of the University of Vienna.
Her forthcoming book “Palace Gardens in Lower Mesopotamia, 8th–11th Centuries” (Edinburgh University Press, October 2024) incorporates a wide range of previously un- or underutilised primary source materials to create a comprehensive picture of these gardens in their historical, architectural and environmental contexts, and to examine various factors that influenced their design and placement. Her first monograph (Tehran, 2017) explores the riverine landscape of a main water canal – Fadan Mādī – in seventeenth-century Isfahan from various angles. It demonstrates the important role that the water system of Isfahan played as a backbone in the morphology, architecture, and daily life of this city.
Trained as an architect with extensive experience in working with Arabic and Persian textual sources, Dr. Mahmoudian received her BA and MA from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, and her DPhil (doctorate) from the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna. Her doctoral thesis received the 2022 Grete Mostny Prize.
safa.mahmoudian@univie.ac.at
Academic third-party funded project staff
Department of Near Eastern Studies
Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna
Employment
Academic third-party funded project staff
Department of Near Eastern Studies
University of ViennaAustria
6 May 2024 → present
Barakat Postdoctoral Fellow
University of OxfordOxford, United Kingdom
15 Oct 2022 → 14 Jul 2023
Post-Doc-Track Fellow
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)Wien, Austria
Apr 2022 → Oct 2022
Academic third-party funded project staff
Department of Art History
University of ViennaAustria
15 Dec 2017 → 12 Feb 2021
Predoc
Department of Art History
University of ViennaAustria
10 Oct 2016 → 28 Feb 2019
Publications
Palace Gardens in Lower Mesopotamia, 8th to 11th Centuries
Mahmoudian, S., Oct 2024, (Accepted/In press) Edinburgh University Press.The Fourfold Garden of Balkuwārā Palace, Revisited
Mahmoudian, S., 2023, Jardins d’Orient: Entre Usages Sociaux, Pratiques, Politiques, et Mémoire du Passé. Presses universitaires de Valenciennes, p. 85–113Rante, Rocco, Djamal Mirzaakhmedov: The Oasis of Bukhara. Population, Depopulation and Settlement Evolution. Vol. 1. Edited by Marcus Milwright, Mariam Rosser-Owen, and Lorenz Korn. Art and Archaeology of the Islamic Word. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2019
Mahmoudian, S., 2022, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 112, p. 358.Bahw in the Architectural Vocabulary of Third/Ninth and Fourth/Tenth Century Mesopotamia
Mahmoudian, S., 2021, In: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. 111Miʿmārī Ruzgār Ṣafawīyān
Mahmoudian, S. & Karimi, A., 2018, Majmūʿa-yi Hunar dar Tamaddun-i Islāmī. Miʿmārī. Vol. 2. p. 257 277 p.Dāstān-i mādī-yi Fadan: miʽmārī wa zindigī wa shahr dar kinār-i jūy dar iṣfahān-i ṣafawī
Mahmoudian, S., 2017, Tehran: Rowzaneh. 136 p.“The Norm of Mādi: Water Management System in Safavid Isfahan”
Mahmoudian, S. & Qayyoomi Bidhendi, M., 2017, Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie, vol.5. Ritter, M., Sturkenboom, I. & Valez Fernandez, F. (eds.). Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Vol. 5. p. 57-69Hanjār Mādī: Niżām Mudīrīyat Āb dar Iṣfahān Ṣafawī
Mahmoudian, S. & Qayyoomi Bidhendi, M., 2013, In: Research & Scientific Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning/ Nāma-yi Mi‘mārī wa Shahrsāzī 5. 5, 10, p. 141-153Activities
University of Vienna
Safa Mahmoudian (Project staff)
Reassessing Nineteenth-Century Art in Islamic Countries
Mattia Guidetti (Organiser), Markus Ritter (Organiser), Maximilian Hartmuth (Organiser) & Safa Mahmoudian (Organiser)
Auf dem Weg zur islamischen Kunst
Safa Mahmoudian (Organiser), Markus Ritter (Organiser), Maximilian Hartmuth (Organiser) & Mattia Guidetti (Organiser)
University of Vienna
Safa Mahmoudian (Project staff)
Prizes
ESPRIT Program, Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Mahmoudian, Safa (Recipient), 2024
Barakat Publication Grant
Mahmoudian, Safa (Recipient), 2023
Barakat Postdoctoral Fellowship
Mahmoudian, Safa (Recipient), 2022
Grete Mostny Dissertation Prize
Mahmoudian, Safa (Recipient), 2022
Post-Doc-Track Fellowship, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Mahmoudian, Safa (Recipient), 2022
Doctoral fellowship, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Mahmoudian, Safa (Recipient), 2017
Projects
Travelling Gardens: Khorasan and Mesopotamia, 8th-12th c.
Mahmoudian, S.
6/05/24 → 5/05/27
Department of Near Eastern Studies
Spitalgasse 2
1090 Wien
Room: 2C-O1-42
T: +43-1-4277-43414