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Welcome! 

I’m Glaire Anderson, award-winning author, historian of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture, and founding leader of the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections in Edinburgh, Scotland.

My mission is to make accurate info about architecture, art and histories of medieval Islamic societies and civilization widely accessible to all. To carry out my mission I work across the video games/ entertainment and immersive technologies (XR+), GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), and education sectors.

Video games for Islamic art, architecture & history

I work with game developers and creative teams who share my values and aims, and collaborated with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Mirage and its in-game Codex educational feature, The History of Baghdad (2023).

Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ubisoft, 2023)

My work on Assassin’s Creed Mirage has been widely featured in the media, including:

BBC Scotland
Apollo Magazine
Times Higher Education

‘Abbas b. Firnas

My second book, A Bridge to the Sky, is now out and available to order from Oxford University Press. It explores early Islamic science and visual culture through the career of the 9th c. polymath ‘Abbas Ibn Firnas, remembered today as an early Islamic ‘scientist,’ and for his experiment in early gliding flight.

If you’re looking for my free online resources on Ibn Firnas, you can get instant access to those here.

A Bridge to the Sky (Oxford University Press, 2024)

For opportunities and updates, including in the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections, join my community: