Noha Abou-Khatwa

Noha Abou-Khatwa serves as an Assistant Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture within the Sheikh Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at The American University in Cairo (AUC), specializing in Medieval Muslim manuscript culture, architecture, and intellectual history with a focus on the Mamluk era.

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Islamic Art and Material Culture, University of Toronto (2017)
• MA in Islamic Art and Architecture, The American University in Cairo (2001)
• BA, The American University in Cairo

Dr. Abou-Khatwa's research spans Arabic calligraphy, Qur’an manuscript studies, and architectural-artistic interchanges across Islamic civilizations, particularly examining connections between Persianate worlds, Egypt, and cross-religious textual traditions. She actively investigates how manuscript illumination techniques influenced architectural decoration and vice versa, while pioneering digital methodologies for analyzing Cairo’s Islamic heritage through initiatives like the Islamic Art Network.

She founded the Islamic Art Network—one of the earliest digital humanities projects for Cairo’s Islamic art—and directed the Dar al-Kutub Manuscript Conservation Project at the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation. Current work includes a monograph on Mamluk calligraphy/illumination and a catalogue of Mamluk Qur’an manuscripts at Egypt’s National Library.