Dr. Safa Mahmoudian, BA M.Sc.
Safa Mahmoudian

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.

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Mahmoudian, S. (Accepted/In press). Palace Gardens in Lower Mesopotamia, 8th to 11th Centuries. Edinburgh University Press.

Mahmoudian, S. (2023). The Fourfold Garden of Balkuwārā Palace, Revisited. In Jardins d’Orient: Entre Usages Sociaux, Pratiques, Politiques, et Mémoire du Passé (pp. 85–113). Presses universitaires de Valenciennes.



Mahmoudian, S., & Karimi, A. (2018). Miʿmārī Ruzgār Ṣafawīyān. In Majmūʿa-yi Hunar dar Tamaddun-i Islāmī. Miʿmārī (Vol. 2, pp. 257)


Mahmoudian, S., & Qayyoomi Bidhendi, M. (2017). “The Norm of Mādi: Water Management System in Safavid Isfahan”. In M. Ritter, I. Sturkenboom, & F. Valez Fernandez (Eds.), Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie, vol.5 (Vol. 5, pp. 57-69). Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.


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Profile photoSafa Mahmoudian
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 Vienna

Austria

6 May 2024 → present

Barakat Postdoctoral Fellow

University of Oxford

Oxford, United Kingdom

15 Oct 202214 Jul 2023

Post-Doc-Track Fellow

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)

Wien, Austria

Apr 2022Oct 2022

Academic third-party funded project staff

Department of Art History

University of Vienna

Austria

15 Dec 201712 Feb 2021

Predoc

Department of Art History

University of Vienna

Austria

10 Oct 201628 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. 85–113

Rante, 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. 111

Miʿmārī 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. 57-69

Hanjār 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. 141-153

Activities

Universität Wien

Safa Mahmoudian (Project staff)

Oct 2018Feb 2019

Reassessing Nineteenth-Century Art in Islamic Countries

Mattia Guidetti (Organiser), Markus Ritter (Organiser), Maximilian Hartmuth (Organiser) & Safa Mahmoudian (Organiser)

6 Jul 20179 Jul 2017

Auf dem Weg zur islamischen Kunst

Safa Mahmoudian (Organiser), Markus Ritter (Organiser), Maximilian Hartmuth (Organiser) & Mattia Guidetti (Organiser)

Jul 2017

Universität Wien

Safa Mahmoudian (Project staff)

2017

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.

6/05/245/05/27

Department of Near Eastern Studies

Spitalgasse 2
1090 Wien
Room: 2C-O1-42

T: +43-1-4277-43414

safa.mahmoudian@univie.ac.at