Wood Joinery: Crafting Nasirid Heritage

Founded in AH 1268/1852 CE, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. The V&A celebrates and shares-through a program of exhibitions, events, educational and digital experiences—a collection of 2.8 million objects, support for new works, and a commitment to conservation, research, and sustainable design to inspire the makers, creators, and innovators of today. The V&A holds over 19,000 items from the Middle East and North Africa, from the early Islamic period to now.
In AH 1444/2023 CE, The Diriyah Biennale Foundation supported the V&A to create the Ramadan Pavilion in London, to celebrate the lived experiences of Muslims across the UK. In AH 1445/2024 CE, the V&A opened the seventh edition of the Jameel Prize, an international award for contemporary art and design supported by Art Jameel. The prize explores the relationship between contemporary practice and Islamic tradition as part of a wider debate about Islamic culture in the 15th century AH/21st century CE.
Recognizing AlMadar as a rare and unique cultural moment drawing together and juxtaposing collections of historical objects from Islamic civilizations from around the world, the V&A joins with a presentation of drawings made at the Alhambra by Owen Jones, Nasrid woodwork, and an 11th-century AH/17th-century CE manuscript by Abulrahman al-Sufi.

Gamal is an architect passionate about geometry and heritage crafts. She apprenticed with a Cairo craftsman to learn traditional techniques and integrate them into an educational methodology. Additionally, she has trained under a Spanish master specializing in Andalusian woodwork, collaborating on geometric wooden domes. Gamal has contributed to Islamic art and architecture by leading workshops at the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, as well as in Cairo, Riyadh, AlUla, and Segovia, Spain. She is dedicated to preserving endangered traditional joinery while incorporating technology to enhance her analysis and fabrication processes.