Expert in Islamic art and architecture and Middle-Eastern archaeology. He read Arabic at Oxford, where he also completed his doctorate, and spent most of his career in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, where he also lectured for the Faculty of Oriental Studies. He has worked as a field archaeologist in Jerusalem and at Siraf and was President of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2002–6.
View excerpt from Professor James Allan's lecture, 'Uzebekistan: Seen & Unseen' (London Lecture Afternoon, October 2017).