JEDDAH, 11 December 2004 — Sitting in her modest but comfortably decorated home here, Hamida A. Alireza speaks with a passion about the need to preserve our Islamic heritage by encouraging the study of the history of Islamic art and architecture, especially by young Muslim scholars.

“We started the Barakat Trust in 1987 because we felt the need to make sure that our past wasn’t forgotten or appropriated by others,” she explained in a recent interview.

“We don’t have much money to give out, but we do sponsor the study and travel of student scholars who concentrate on Islamic art history,” says Hamida.

She’s particularly proud of several of their grantees who are now teaching in Cairo and Britain, or are curators of major museums in Europe and Africa.

“We provide essential seed money to students and scholars to enable them to continue their work. Often that’s all they need in order to get more funding from their universities or other sources,” explains Hamida.

The trust has already supported over 350 projects, students and scholars from over thirty countries, including a comprehensive architectural and archeological study of the Citadel of Jerusalem; the restoration of Cairo’s Gayer-Anderson Museum’s 17thcentury sabil and cistern, and the restoration of a 16th-century manuscript at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, charting the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), that was produced in Istanbul for Ottoman Sultan Murad III.

Most of the trust’s funding comes from zakah donations, which are used exclusively to support Muslim students and scholars. The non-zakah donations are used to sponsor the work of non-Muslim scholars and students.

Only seven percent of the trust’s total money is spent on fund-raising, publicity and administration. Seventy-three percent is spent on grants.

“We are a registered charity in the UK and the USA, and our administrative office is at Oxford University, not because we are linked to that university, but because our administrator and academic advisors teach there,” clarified Hamida.

Having enough money to fund all of the students has always been a problem, admits Reema Safadi, one of the trustees. “But, we’ve always managed to accommodate those who really needed help by juggling our spending,” she says.

The Barakat Trust provided the Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s ongoing exhibition in Washington, DC, “Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade and Innovation,” with a $10,000 grant to fund the show’s educational program.

“We always try to fund projects in innovative ways that have the maximum educational impact,” says Hamida.

“A British archaeological team on a dig in Syria once applied for a zakah grant from us by saying they would be using Muslim laborers on the excavation site. We said ‘no’ but suggested that they hire 10 Syrian archaeology students instead to help in the dig, so that they would gain invaluable experience and build relationships with established experts.

They found those students like that and we then funded their dig,” recalls Hamida with a grin.

Hamida admits that there is still not enough interest in the Muslim world to study our Islamic past, but that the trust is open to all applications for funding of their studies.

“We can’t actively go out and recruit those we are going to fund,” she explains. “They have to come to us. We carefully consider all applications and hope that more Saudis will apply in the future.”

The application deadline for grants is March 31 each year. To obtain information on how to apply or how to make a donation to the trust, visit the trust’s website at www.barakat.org.