Research

"Like the collection at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the database reinforces the shared experience of humanity"

The National, December 9, 2017

Falconry has long captured the imagination of artists. From Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt van Rijn to Ustad Mansur or Katsushika Hokusai, artists across cultures and centuries have returned to falconry, time and again, weaving it into petroglyphs, illuminated manuscripts, frescoes and oil paintings, textiles, luxury artifacts, architectural decors, etc. Each work, far from reinforcing the modern perception of falconry as a medieval pastime frozen in time or merely a symbol of nobility in grand portraits, captures shifting and intimate ideas about what it means to be human—our sense of belonging, our desire for mastery, our search for meaning through nature, faith, and science, the fleeting nature of our youth, love and joy, and the inevitable reckoning with loss, death and our fragility. Each work is a testament to humanity’s ongoing efforts to define itself through the animals it admires, controls, and protects.

To deepen this exploration, I developed a structured and easily navigable database—a virtual collection of thousands of artistic representations of falconry, gathering images from diverse cultural traditions and historical periods. Designed as both a research tool and a discovery platform, it enables new forms of visual analysis—both qualitative and quantitative—it opens fresh perspectives on the role of falconry in history and art, and serves as a dynamic resource for scholars and enthusiasts alike.

This project was made possible through two grants from the Research Fellowship Program for the Study of the Arab World at NYU Abu Dhabi, which supports innovative research on the region’s history, culture, and society.