Doors 18.30

Ibn Batuttah of Tangier travelled the known world to its limits in the fourteenth century. Seven centuries on, Tim Mackintosh- Smith’s passionate pursuit of this medieval traveller takes him on a zigzag itinerary across time and space, from Zanzibar to the Alhambra (via the Maldives, Sri Lanka, China, and Guinea). The book’s climactic conclusion resolves his quest for the man who out-travelled Marco Polo by a factor of three, who spent his days with saints and sultans and his nights with an intercontinental string of slave-concubines.

Landfalls is the final book in Makintosh- Smith’s trilogy on the travels of Ibn- Battutah. The two earlier books, Travels with a Tangerine and The Hall of a Thousand Columns, were received to huge critical acclaim and his journeys have also been turned into a major BBC television series. For the past twenty-five years he has lived in the Yemeni capital San’a, in a tower-house on top of the ancient Sabaean city, next to the modern donkey market. Barnaby Rogerson is a leading British travel author and publisher, whose books include Meetings with Remarkable Muslims and The Last Crusaders

Image: Jamie Wightman

Tickets £10, Concessions £6
Asia House Friends £5

Doors 18.30





With almost 200 million people speaking
nearly sixty languages, conceived under the
auspices of a single religion, but wracked
with deep separatist fissures and the
destabilising forces of neighbours Iran and
Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of the most
dynamic places in the world. It is also at
the forefront of a cultural renaissance.
Granta 112: Pakistan seizes this moment
and brings to life the creative landscape
of the country in fiction, reportage,
memoir, travelogue and poetry. In a special
collaboration with the arts organisation
Green Cardamom, Granta 112: Pakistan’s
contributors write in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi,
Baluchi and English or are visual artists
whose diverse works engage with the
complexity of this unique nation.



Join Granta, Green Cardamom and writers
including Daniyal Mueenuddin and Nadeem
Aslam for a discussion on the literature and
contemporary art of Pakistan. A reception
with refreshments and music will follow the
event. Sponsored by Granta in association
with Green Cardamom.



The devastating floods in Pakistan have ruined the lives and livelihoods of over 120,000 people. Critical infrastructure has been damaged and clean water is in short supply. With the toll expected to grow as monsoon season continues. Asia House, Granta and Green Cardamom would like to dedicate their 15 September event  Pakistan:  A Corona Burst of Talentto raising funds to help with the relief efforts.  With 50% of the event proceeds going to the Pakistan flood relief, major contributions from both Granta and Green Cardamom, and an appeal to the audience to make additional contributions on the evening, we hope to raise a significant amount.



Please join the global effort to assist crisis responders and victims by buying a ticket for this talk, and by giving generously on the evening.  




Tickets £12, concessions £8
Asia House Friends £8

Ticket price includes a copy of Granta 112: Pakistan

Doors 18.30

Thursday 16 September, 18.45 The Korean war of 1950, one of the most significant military events of the 20th century, reshaped the political and cultural landscape of the peninsula. With the North and South still officially at war, the legacy of the conflict has redefined Korean identities on either side of the demilitarised zone for the past five decades. An expert panel discusses the resonance of the war in historical memory and its manifestations in the film and visual arts of both North and South, while considering the future of unresolved conflict and its implications for security across the region.

Michael Shin is a lecturer in Korean studies at the Cambridge University Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

Daniel Levitsky of London University’s School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, is a specialist in North Korean film and has led several tours to the DPRK.

Tickets £10, Concessions £6
Asia House Friends £5

Doors 18.30

This special curator-led tour presents a selection of the host of exquisite manuscripts in this exhibition, inspired by Ferdowsi’s great epic of Persian literature. Barbara Brend discusses their powerful depiction of kingly chronicles and supernatural adventures that have fascinated Iranian monarchs throughout the centuries. Brend is curator of Epic of the Persian Kings: The Art of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. As an independent scholar, her principal research is into form and meaning in Persian and Mughal manuscript illustration, on which she has published extensively.

Meet in the main entrance hall of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RB at 13.45 for a 14.00 start.

Image: Epic of the Persian Kings: The Art of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. Fitzwilliam Museum, September 2010 to January 2011

Places are limited, so early booking is strongly advised.
Tickets £10
Exclusive to Friends of Asia House

For booking please call 020 7307 5454
Bookings are neither refundable nor transferable

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Doors 18.30

Back in the UK after their Nine Lives world tour with William Dalrymple, Paban Das and Mimlu Sen of The Bauls will entertain with their magical music, blending elements of Sufism, Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism.

The Bauls will intersperse their extraordinary performance with readings from Mimlu's book The Honey Gatherers. Combining biography, anthropology and travelogue, Mimlu shares her own journey from upper-class Shillong, to the world of performing for alms - 'gathering honey' - in the traditional Baul way, as the boshtomi (lifemate) of the now-famous Paban Das Baul. She reveals the philosophy, wisdom, humour and ritualised chaos of the Bauls ancient way of life.

Join us for this very special event - a celebration of music and words, freedom and sensuality - the essence of India.

"It is impossible not to be drawn into the harsh and poor, but magical, world of the Bauls - and to understand what it really means to be free...An amazing and exhilarating personal journey"

Michael Wood, author of The Story of India

Reception kindly sponsored by Indus Experiences.

Tickets £12, Concessions £10
Asia House Friends £8

Doors 18.30

For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In his compelling, inspiring new book, Jim al- Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world.

All scientists have stood on the shoulders of giants and modern historical accounts suggest that the achievements of the ancient Greeks were not matched until the European Renaissance in the 16th century. In the ninth-century, however, the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Abu Ja’far Abdullah al-Ma’mun, created the greatest centre of learning the world had ever seen, known as Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom.

The scientists and philosophers he brought together sparked a period of extraordinary discovery, in every field imaginable, launching a golden age of Arabic science.

Tickets £10, Concessions £6
Asia House Friends £5



Professor Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi born theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster.

Doors 18.30


Friday 1 October, 18.45
Weaving together Shakespeare’s verse
and Bengali poetry, People’s Romeo is a
dynamic, cross-cultural performance made
for our time. Five performers use Pala Gaan
– a theatre style which combines music,
dance and storytelling – to re-invent this
classic of English theatre.


TARA produces global theatre for local
audiences. Positioned between East and
West, TARA has pioneered cross-cultural
theatre for over 3 decades. In 2009 the
company co-produced Hanif Kureishi’s
The Black Album with The National Theatre.
‘The most culturally open-minded troupe
in Britain’ – Independent on Sunday.





Tickets £15, Concessions £12
Asia House Friends £10

Doors 18.30



Shoaib Sultan Khan has spent a lifetime
reducing poverty and supporting rural
communities in various areas of South Asia.
His pioneering and inspirational work for
the Rural Support Network Programmes
was recognised in 2009 with a nomination
for the Nobel Peace Prize. In a rare UK
appearance Mr Khan traces the evolution
of a sustainable rural development model
of South Asia, based on his personal field
experiences. Khan served initially in the
Pakistan civil service before moving to
UNICEF and then the Aga Khan Rural
Support Foundation, an organisation whose
work now touches over 12 million people in
Pakistan.


Shoaib Sultan Khan is the author of The Aga
Khan Rural Support – A Journey Through
Grassroots Development.




Tickets £10, Concessions £6
Asia House Friends £5

This exclusive full-day conference, focused on trends and opportunities in the Middle East contemporary art scene, includes talks and in-depth panel discussions with leading figures from all perspectives in the Middle East art world. Contributors include: curators, gallerists, consultants, museum professionals, artists, patrons, collectors, auction house specialists and art market experts – providing an insider’s, fully comprehensive, perspective of current and future market and artistic trends in the Middle East and Iran.

Leading speakers include patron and collector Maryam Homayoum-Eisler; William Lawrie, Director of Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art at Christie’s (Dubai) and Jessica Morgan Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate Modern.

Please contact Jeffrey Boloten for further information on ticket prices and bookings.
image: joie de vivre © Houria Niati. Courtesy of Janet Rady Fine Art

Jeffrey Boloten, ArtInsight, Managing Director
jeffrey@artinsight.co.uk
www.artinsight.co.uk

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Singapore Symphony Orchestra Debut at the Royal Festival Hall
Asia House Friends special offer The Singapore Symphony Orchestra will give its long-awaited debut at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Led by Music Director Lan Shui, the orchestra will be joined by the celebrated pianist Stephen Hough for Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The exciting programme includes Debussy’s La Mer, Rachmaninov’s The Isle of the Dead and Zhou Long’s The Rhyme of Taigu. Their recent recording of La Mer was described in BBC Music Magazine as “an unequivocally world-class performance of Debussy’s masterpiece”.

‘Like Simon Rattle at Birmingham… Lan Shui has turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble that plays its heart out at every concert and where each musician is a hand-picked virtuoso. In recognition of his accomplishment, the Hangzhou born Shui recently was given the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest accolade in the arts.’
Robert Markow, American Record Guide

Tickets £35/£28/£18/£12/£8
Booking (Transaction fees apply)
Concessions: 50% off (limited availability)
Friends of Asia House receive a 15% discount on the top three price categories.
To receive this discount, please quote ‘Asia House’ when making your booking.

Book through SBC Ticket Office
0844 875 0073
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

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Asia House will be presenting a major conference and gala dinner in Central London in October 2010.

The conference will start on the morning of October 13 and finish with lunch on October 14. There will be high profile speakers and panel discussions covering key current issues and themes affecting business in Asia.

The gala dinner will be held on the evening of October 13. Prominent business leaders will be honoured during the evening.

More details will follow shortly but we wanted to ensure that you are holding these dates in your diary for what we believe will be a tremendous and high profile event.

To book please contact Pearly Tan, Corporate Programme Manager
Pearly.Tan@asiahouse.co.uk
020 7307 5437

Doors 18.30

Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss philosopher and Islamic scholar, who has written extensively on Western Muslims, Islamic Ethics and the future of Islam in the modern world. In his new book, The Quest for Meaning, Ramadan journeys to the deep ocean of religious, secular, and indigenous spiritual traditions to explore the most pressing issues affecting contemporary Islam and the West. He interrogates the concepts that frame current debates on faith and reason, emotions and spirituality, tradition and modernity, universality and civilisation.

Ramadan seeks a common ground between religious and intellectual traditions and calls urgently for a deep and meaningful dialogue that leads beyond tolerant co-existence to mutual respect and enrichment.

An exceptional chance to hear one of the foremost scholars of contemporary Islam discuss the most important questions of the 21st century.

Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University.

Tickets £10, Concessions £6
Asia House Friends £5