Venugopal Maddipati talks to Hakim Sameer Hamdani on his book “The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir”. The book presents the rich historical context of Islam in Kashmir and explores newer dimensions of tracing histories through architecture.

Hakim Sameer Hamdani is a notable architectural historian and an Islamicist and the Design Director of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Kashmir Chapter, Srinagar. Some of his major conservation projects include Reconstruction of 18th-century Wooden Shrine of Peer Dastgeer Saheb (2020–12) and Conservation of Aali Masjid at Eidgah, Srinagar (2007) ― both of which were longlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. More recently he has received an offer under the Agha Khan Program, to do his post-doctorate at MIT, where he will be carrying forward his work on Muslim architecture and Muslim identity in the late 19th and early 20th century Kashmir, in the background of colonialism and the freedom struggle.