Ruba Kana’an (DPhil, Oxford) is Assistant Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Graduate Faculty at the Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto St. George. She previously held positions at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2011-17), was the Noor Chair of Islamic Studies at York University (2008-11), and a Faculty Member at that the Oriental Institute, Oxford University (2002-8). Her research and publications focus on the intersections between art and law in Muslim context and raise questions about art, history, historiography, global connections, and materiality. She is currently working on her forthcoming book The Friday Mosque: Law, Architecture, and Authority in Pre-Modern Muslim Societies and Co-editing a book on the Arts of the Indian Ocean.
Her articles and book chapters include
“Rethinking the Friday Mosque: A Critical Enquiry of an Architectural Paradigm,” Journal of Material Cultures of the Muslim World (vol. 4, 2024); “‘And God Will Protect You from Mankind’ (Q. 5:67): A Talismanic Shirt from West Africa in the Collection of the Textile Museum Canada” in Approaches to the Qur’an in Sub-Saharan Africa (2019); “The Social and Economic History of Metalwork. 1050-1250,” in A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture (with James W. Allan, 2017); “Patron and Craftsman of the Freer Mosul Ewer of 1232: a Historical and Legal Interpretation of the Roles of tilmidh and ghulam in Islamic Metalwork,” Ars Orientalis (vol. 42, 2012); “The de jure artist of the Bobrinski Bucket: production and patronage of pre-Mongol metalwork in Khurasan and Transoxiana,” Islamic Law and Society, (vol. 16, 2009); and the forthcoming “Matter, Making, and Mode: Stucco in the Legal Texts of Iran and Central Asia (11th-13th c.)”.
ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1319-0973